THE 



LIFE AND TIMES 



OF 



SAINT CYPRIAN 



BY 

GEO. AYLIFFE POOLE, M.A 

INCUMBENT OF ?T. JAMES's CHURCH, LEEDS, 



OXFORD, 

JOHN HENRY PARKER ; 
J. G. F. AND J. RIVINGTON, LONDON 

1840. 






BAXTERj PRINTER, OXFORD. 



6^ 



^^' 



TO THE 
MOST REVEREND FATHER IN GOD 

WILLIAM, 

LORD ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY, 
PRIMATE OF ALL ENGLAND AND METROPOLITAN, 

THIS HISTORY 
OF THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 

CYPRIAN, 

ARCHBISHOP OF CARTHAGE, SAINT AND MARTYR, 

IS 

IN THESE DAYS OF UNGODLINESS AND INFIDELITY, 

AND OF 

BITTER HOSTILITY AGAINST THE CHURCH, 

WITH HIS grace's PERMISSION 

MOST DUTIFULLY AND HUMBLY 

INSCRIBED. 

MDCCCXL. 



PREFACE. 



If this volume at all answers the Author's 
design, there is one important consideration 
which the reader ought to carry with him 
during its perusal. 

The Avork was undertaken with a desire 
to recommend that tone of religion, calm, 
reverential, implicit, self-sacrificing, and 
objective, w^hich is well and conveniently 
called " Catholic," to distinguish it from 
the bustling, irreverent, neological, self- 
seeking, and subjective character of the 
fashionable reUgion of the present day ; 
and which was happily exemplified in 
St. Cyprian, and generally, though indeed 
with glaring, and for our present purpose 
valuable exceptions, in the Church over 
which he presided. 

Perhaps, too, something of the consti- 
tution and polity of the Church, as exem- 
plified in the life and times of St. Cyprian, 



viii PREFACE. 

and of the form and order of its several 
assemblies and offices, may be profitably 
contrasted with the impatience of rule and 
discipline, and the undervaluing of what- 
ever is positive and ritual, which is charac- 
teristic of the loudest and most obtrusive 
party of religionists in the present day. 

Now the spirit and form of the Anglican 
Church is eminently Catholic, in the 
sense before mentioned. But we may 
contract a careless habit of judging our 
Church by its present members ; and for- 
getting that she every where protests 
against their laxity and irreverence, we 
may lay that blame on the sorrowing 
mother, which ought to fall on the un- 
dutiful children. Or again, while we are 
studying the history of a particular Church 
and age, for the sake of the "Catholic'' 
spirit which it embodies, we may be in 
danger of forgetting, that that spirit may 
animate very different forms : and so we 
may hastily condemn our own Church, 
because we, in our folly and pride, deem 
the various arrangements which she has 
made, in wisdom and in love, inconsistent 
with a primitive character, because they 



PREFACE. ix 

are not identical with a particular primitive 
form. This is a grievous error into v^hich 
those are likely to fall, who are seeking to 
catholicise the present generation of the 
sons of the Church by a reference to the 
ecclesiastical records of any former age. 
But let us all remember, (and the Author 
of this volume feels that the warning is 
necessary for himself, which he presses on 
others,) that if, in pretence of a Catholic 
spirit, we touch but the hem of the garment 
of our own holy brother except with the 
deepest reverence and piety, we most un- 
equivocally give the lie to our pretensions. 
There is no one thing which our Church 
can require, so long as she hath the grace 
of God with her, so wrong, so opposed to 
all Catholic form and spirit, as the unfilial 
judgment, or the imperfect obedience, of 
any of her sons. 

Leeds, Jmie 20, 1840. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

Scantiness of strictly personal notices of Cyprian. — Pontius 
his panegyrist. — Questions ofthe place of Cyprian's birth, — 
of his age,= — and of his marriage. — His profession and con- 
dition as a heathen. — His acquaintance with Caecilius. — - 
His conversion. — His use of the Scriptures. — His Bap- 
tism. — His own account of the spiritual change effected 
in him at Baptism. — He adopts the name of Caecilius. p. 1 

CHAPTER II. 

St. Cyprian's writings while a layman. — His Epistle to 
Donatus, on the Grace of God. — His Treatise on the 
Vanity of Idols. — The death of Caecilius ; — who appoints 
Cyprian the guardian of his family. — St. Cyprian a 
Deacon.— Dionysius of Alexandria. — St. Cyprian a Pres- 
byter. — His three books of Testimonies against the 
Jews. 23 

CHAPTER III. 

Cyprian chosen Bishop. — His attempt to escape. — The part 
of the people in his election. — The constitution of the 
Church in the Cyprianic age.— The state of morals and of 
discipline in Cyprian's diocese, and the acts and writings 
which arose out of the condition of the Church. — The 
Epistles of Cyprian. — The case of Gerainius Victor: — 
commemoration of the dead: — the primitive practice a 
witness against Romish Errors. — The case of the player: — 
the state of the stage in Cyprian's time. — The case of the 
rebellious Deacon.— The case of the (rvma-uKroi. — " .Ancient 
Christianity." 39 



Xll CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER IV. 

Revolutions in the Roman State. — Their influence on the 
condition of the Church. — Edicts of Decius. — The perse- 
cution commences. — Some retire from Carthage; — among 
whom St. Cyprian himself, — Cyprian's reasons for retiring. 
— His care of the Church while absent. — His letter to the 
Confessors. — The insinuations of the Roman Clergy against 
Cyprian : and Cyprian's answer to their Epistle.— The 
progress of the persecution. — The sufferings of Mappalicus, 
and other Confessors and Martyrs. 76 

CHAPTER V. 

The number of apostates in the Decian persecution. — The 
Sacrificati, Thurijicati, and LibellaticL — The discipline of 
the lapsed. — Its rigour^ — and its occasional relaxation. — 
The privilege of the Martyrs: — abused in this instance. — 
The Clergy chiefly in fault. — Cyprian's own determination 
of the case of the lapsed. 104 

CHAPTER VI. 

Cyprian's return prevented by a schism in his Church. — 
The origin of the schism. — Novatus : — his character :— - 
his crimes. — He is cited to appear before Cyprian. — 
He escapes under cover of the Decian persecution. — He 
makes a party, and forsakes the Church. — He obtains the 
ordination of Felicissimus : — it is questioned by whom. — 
The five Presbyters companions of Novatus in schism. — 
Cyprian appoints deputies to put his regulations in force. — 
The place which voluntary seceders hold, in respect of 
the Church. — Novatus goes to Rome. — Novatian : — his 
character. — His secret cabals : — fostered by Novatus. — 
Election of Cornelius to the See of Rome. — His character. — 
Novatian's schismatical ordination. — His practices at home 
and abroad. — The spread of his party. — Novatus returns 
to Carthage. 126 



CONTENTS. Xlll 

CHAPTER Ml. 
Proceedings touching the election of Cornelias, and the 
schismatical ordination of Novatian, at Cartha^re; — at 
Hadrumettium. — The Episcopate of Cornelius finally re- 
cognized. — Felicissimus and the five Presbyters excom- 
municated. — St. Cyprian's letters to the schismatical con- 
fessors. — His Treatise De Vnilale Ecclesia. — Letter of 
Dionysius of Alexandria to Novatian. — A Synod at Car- 
thage, and in Rome. — The return of the schismatical 
Confessors. — Letters of Cornelius, the Confessors, and 
Cyprian. — Reflections on the Novatian schism. 157 



CHAPTER VHl. 
A review of St. Cyprian's Tract De Unilale Ecclesice. 181 



CHAPTER IX. 

A schism at Carthage. — Its origin. — The surreptitious or- 
dination of Fortunatus. — The schismatics apply to Cor- 
nelius for his support: — they are at first repelled, but 
afterwards too favourably heard. — St. Cyprian expostulates 
with Cornelius. — The extinction of Fortunatus's party. — 
Maximus ordained by the Novatians in Carthage. — His 
faction contemptible. 1 97 



CHAPTER X. 

Persecution renewed on occasion of the plague. — Cyprian's 
apologetic letter to Demetrian. — His Epistle to the Thyba- 
ritani. — The penitent lapsed admitted to communion, in 
anticipation of persecution. — The exhortation to Martyr- 
dom. — St. Cyprian's last letter to St. Cornelius. — Death of 
Cornelius. — Of Lucius. — How far persecution a test of 
truth. 208 



X\r CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XT. 

The plague rages at Carthage. — Cyprian's Tract De Mor- 
talilate. — The expectation of the last day in the early 
Church : -Gibbon's use of it — Cyprian's opinion on the 
time, person, and character of Antichrist. 250 



CHAPTER XII. 

Weakness of the Roman empire. — Numidian Christians 
carried captive by Barbarians. — Collections made in Car- 
thage to redeem them. — Cyprian's Epistle to Csecilius on 
the mixed cup. — His doctrine applied to half communion, 
and other errors in the present day. 27^ 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Revolutions in the Roman empire. — Questions of Fidus 
touching a lapsed Bishop, and the case of infant baptism. — 
The case of Fortunianus : — of Basilides and Martialis: — 
of Marcianus of Aries. — The insolence of Pupianus. 304 



CHAPTER XIV. 

The question of the baptism of heretics, and the controversy 
arising out of it. — Its origin in Asia Minor : — it is dis- 
cussed in a Synod at Carthage. — Cyprian's letter to the 
Bishops of Numidia. — The character of several objections 
against his rule. — A Synod of seventy-two Bishops aii- 
sembled at Carthage to determine the question. — Cyprian's 
account to Stephen of the proceedings of the Synod. -^ 
Cyprian's letter to Jubaianus. 327 



CONTENTS. XV 

CHAPTER XV. 

Stephen, Bishop of Rome, interferes in the controversy about 
the Baptism of heretics.— Cyprian's Epistle to Pompeius. — 
The last Council assembled at Carthage to determine the 
question ; — St, Cyprian's opening Address ; — and several 
of the more remarkable suffrages — The unanimity of 
the Council against the judgment of Stephen, and the 
custom of Rome. — Irenseus and Victor. — Dionysius and 
Stephen. 35S 



CHAPTER XVI. 

A general view of the principles involved in the controversy 
concerning the baptism of heretics. 379 



CHAPTER XVII. 

Valerian instigated by Macrianus to persecute the Church. — 
Death of Stephen: — and election of Sixtus. — St. Cyprian 
summoned before the Proconsul: — his confession: — his 
banishment: — his vision. — Dionysius of Alexandria also 
banished. — Cyprian recalled to Carthage by Galerius 
Maximus. — He retires for a short time when summoned to 
Utica. — He returns to Carthage, and is brought before 
the Proconsul. — His examination, — sentence, — and death. 

397 



THE 

LIFE AND TIMES 

OF 

SAINT CYPRIAN. 



CHAPTER I. 

scantiness of strictly personal notices of cyprian. 

pontius his panegyrist. questions of the place of 

Cyprian's birth, — of his age, — and of his mar- 
riage. — HIS profession and condition as a hea- 
then. — his acquaintance with C^CILIUS. HIS CON- 
VERSION. HIS USE OF THE SCRIPTURES. HIS BAP- 
TISM. HIS OWN ACCOUNT OF THE SPIRITUAL CHANGE 

EFFECTED IN HIM AT BAPTISM. HE ADOPTS THE NAME 

OF CiECILIUS. 



The personal history, even of great men, 
derives its charm not from the splendour and 
importance of those actions by which they were 
ennobled, but from the variety of incidents, in 
which the distinctive peculiarities of their cha- 
racter were displayed. The unity and expression 
of the whole, which are the sources of our gratifi- 
cation, result not from the greatness of the parts, 
but from their due proportion and subordination, 
and from a pervading tone, harmonizing their 



•2 LIFE AND TIMES 

very minuteness and variety : as the Mosaic 
must be wrought into an harmonious whole out of 
pieces infinitely small and diversified, or it will 
present, not a finished and striking tablet, but a 
cold and disjointed patchw-ork. Even in the 
lives of heroes and of .statesmen, the reader is 
interested not only by the preparations for con- 
flict, the bustle of the encounter, and the elation 
of success ; but also, and perhaps still more 
intensely, by the lighter incidents : the child's 
question or the boy's exploit, a hasty expression 
of hope or disappointment or impatience, a liking 
or an antipathy, in short any thing and every 
thing which may serve to embody a marked trait 
of personal character, in the record of a trifling 
incident. 

The charm, however, of these minute records, 
is to be referred to the more splendid incidents, 
and to the greatness of the whole subject. We 
are delighted to see one who is elevated to a 
dim and mysterious height above us, brought 
down to our level ; identified with the man with 
whom his neighbours conversed, w^hom his as- 
sociates admired, and whom his family loved. 
Hence it is impossible to throw the appropriate 
charm of biography over the history of a great 
man, if we possess but few characteristic anec- 
dotes of his private life, and but few unstudied 
expressions of his personal feeling. With all our 
effort to keep the same person always in view. 



OF ST. CYPRIAN, 3 

and always the centre of interest, we are still 
writing History, not Biographj ; and neither 
splendour of character nor importance of incident 
can supply the requisite material. They may 
elevate the pages in which they are recorded to 
the more exalted order • of ethics or of history, 
and impart something of the interest appropriate 
to their new station ; but they cannot invest 
them wdth the peculiar charm of the story of 
a life in its varied sameness, in its blended 
diversity of thoughts, of feeling, and of in- 
cident. 

It is not inconceivable, that the very greatness 
of the part which a man has played, may have 
deprived us of these most valuable materials of 
his biography. While we are dazzled with splen- 
did actions, we do not discern traits of character; 
and while we are proclaiming the deeds of high 
emprize which make the hero, we omit those 
little incidents which mark the man. Thus the 
means of gratifying it, are often in the inverse 
proportion of the interest with which w^e look for 
indications of the complexion of a mind, which 
has wrought revolutions in opinions or in em- 
pires. 

These remarks preceding a life of St. Cyprian 
are apologetic : for though he was the centre of 
most important ecclesiastical movements in his 
own day, and though scarce any single person 
has ever contributed more to give a colour to 

b2 



4 LIFE AND TIMES 

distant ages, so that we cannot repress a 
curiosity to know more of his individual mind 
and feelings, we are remarkably destitute of 
information on these points. His only professed 
biographer affords us almost no assistance ; and 
while the public records of his Episcopate are a 
great part of the history of the Western Church 
in his day, the sources from which these are 
derived, though chiefly his own Epistles, are 
equally deficient in strictly personal notices. 
An account, therefore, of St. Cyprian's life and 
times, stands in that middle ground between 
biography and history, which it is difficult to 
invest with the appropriate interest of either. 

We have no records, and but very scanty 
intimations, of the incidents in the life of 
Thascius Cyprian before his conversion to 
Christianity, though it was doubtless varied by 
the political events of his day, and coloured 
with the peculiar energy of his character. 
Cyprian was not, indeed, without a contempo- 
rary biographer. Pontius, his Deacon, his com- 
panion in many of his labours and troubles, and, 
what is more, his affectionate friend and ardent 
admirer, sought consolation at the death of 
Cyprian in the pious task of enumerating his 
actions and recording his virtues. But Pontius 
was either ignorant of the specific charm of 
biography, or so conscious of the difficulties 
before mentioned in the particular case of St. 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 6 

Cyprian, that he has not adventured to overcome 
them. We cannot help regretting, that one who 
had so full an opportunity of acquainting himself 
with Cyprian's former life and condition, did not 
think these subjects worthy of his attention. 
There is certainly more of the piety than of the 
judgment of a Christian biographer, in the 
resolution to commence the account of an illus- 
trious convert with his spiritual birth ; as if it 
was not interesting and profitable to know what 
a man was before his conversion, as well as what 
he then became: for surely an acquaintance with 
his former life and disposition is a necessary 
element in a comprehensive view even of his 
Christian character ; and must form a part of 
our estimate of its importance, as illustrative of 
the grace of God. The world has recorded this 
judgment in its appreciation of the Confessions of 
St. Augustine. 

The expression of Pontius is worthy of re- 
mark, as giving at the very commencement of 
his work a clue to its real character. '^ Whence %" 
says he, " shall I commence his panegyric, but 
from the dawn of his faith, and from his heavenly 
birth ?" And in perfect harmony with this ex- 
ordium, we find Pontius far more earnest in 
celebrating the praises, than laborious in relating 
the actions, of Cyprian : in eulogising, than in 

* Unde igitur incipiam ? Uncle exordium bononim cjii^ 
aggrediar, nisi a principio fidei et nativitatc coelesti. 



6 LIFE AND TIMES 

illustrating, his character. He professes^ that 
not only his own eloquence, but even eloquence 
itself", must fail to paint the virtues of his 
martyred Bishop in their true colours : he 
represents the seed-time, the harvest, the bud- 
ding, and the pressing of the grape, the planting 
of the tree, and the ripening of the fruit', as all 
crowded into the same season, in this illustrious 
convert : he prefers him far before Cornelius, 
who was baptized by Philip ; and the very 
oppositions which Cyprian met at his entering 
on the Episcopate, he represents as providen- 
tially occurring, that they might reflect the 
greater honour on the holy Bishop by his 
conquest of them''. 

Meanwhile we are left to collect as we can 
from other sources, all the most interesting 
particulars concerning Cyprian's former life. 
Where was he born, and when ? What was his 
lineage and condition ? Was he a married or a 
single man ? And at what age did he embrace 



b St. Augustine expresses the same thing by another strange 
conceit. Cujus reverendi Episcopi et venerandi Martyri^ 
laudibus nulla lingua sufficeret, nee si se ipse laudaret. Sermo 
cccxiii. vol. viii. p. 1258. Ed. Bassani, 1807. 

^ It is curious to find the modesty of Cyprian, and the 
admiration of Pontius, expressed under the same image. 
Exilis ingenii, says Cyprian, (Ep. i. p. 1.) angusta mediocritas 
tenues admodum fruges parit, nullis ad copiam fcecundi 
cespitis culminibus ingravescit. 

^ Quidam illi restiterunt, etiam ut vinceret, Pontius, y. 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 



the faith of Christ ? These are questions which 
Pontius will not answer for us^, and some of 
which are still subjects of controversy : not of 
curious enquiry only, but actually of controversy, 
such are the interest and importance which they 
derive from Cyprian's character and position. 

Where * Cyprian was born we have no means 
of discovering, and the time of his birth is equally 
uncertain ^ A general notion seems to prevail, 
that he was already an old man before his con- 
version ; but all the indirect evidence that I can 
find seems to lead to a different conclusion. His 
voluntary discipline while a Catechumen, which 
excited the admiration of Pontius, was more 
appropriate to one in the vigour of life than to 
an old man ", and all his actions and writings 
are replete with the energy of a mature manhood, 
not yet deprived of the fire of youth. 



^ Perhaps, however, we may obscurely collect, that he 
was not born at Carthage, the scene of his many labours, 
from this slight negative evidence. Speaking, during Lis 
temporary retreat, of his desire to revisit Carthage, he asks, 
*' Where could my time be spent, either more delightfully 
or more profitably, than where it was the will of God that I 
should first believe, and continue to grow in the faith ?" 
Ep. xxxvi. 49. It may be supposed, that if Carthage had 
been his birth-place, he would have added. Where can I 
better dwell ? where, if I must suffer, can I better resign 
my soul to God, than where I first received it at his hands ? 

' Quando natus sit ignoramus. August Senno. cccx. 

^ Inter fidei suae prima rudimenta, nihil aliud credidit 
Deo dignum, quam ut continentiam tueretur. 



8 LIFE AND TIMES 

Such a life as induced some to invent the 
evidences of his noble descent is more honourable 
to Cyprian^ than the most ancient and dignified 
pedigree could have been : yet there is a real 
elevation in rank and ancestral nobility, w^hich 
harmonises well with whatever is great and good ; 
it is only, therefore, for want of sufficient evidence, 
that I reject the notion of Baronius, founded on 
a passage of Gregory Nazianzen, that Cyprian 
was of noble birth, and of senatorial rank. Of 
the personal consideration, however, of Cyprian 
in the profession of oratory we have clearer 
evidence. Lactantius, who prefers him above all 
those who had employed a cultivated mind in 
the defence of Christianity'^, tells us of the dis- 
tinction which he had gained as a master of 
Rhetoric : and Cyprian himself seems to refer to 
his own personal condition before his baptism, 
when he describes, in his Epistle to Donatus, the 
pomp of place, and the crowd of clients, by which a 
distinguished public character is surrounded. St. 
Augustine mentions his wealth : and here again, 
his own account seems to infer as much ; for all 
those allurements of pleasure and of sin which he 
represents as opposing the greatest obstacles to 
the reception of Christianity, and which he 
mentions in such a manner as scarce to admit a 
doubt that he was speaking from his own ex- 
perience, are such as the rich only are acquainted 

^ Lactantius, lib. v, p, 2S1. Ed. Cantab. 1685, 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 



with. Ease and luxury: vestments of gold and 
purple; the pomp and the projects, the passions 
and the pursuits, of the great and wealthy, had 
all combined to enslave the ardent mind of 
Cyprian, and to keep him still in the Egyptian 
bondage of heathenism and vice. Nor yet at the 
time that he wrote his Epistle to Donatus on 
occasion of their baptism, had he w^holly ceased 
to relish the advantages of an honourable wealth. 
His rural retreat, which he evidently describes as 
it was then before his eyes, and filling his mind 
with images of beauty, was not unworthy of a 
Cicero or a Pliny; nor the use which he made of 
it of a Christian philosopher. '' The season and 
the place," says he, ^* both alike invite us to se- 
rious conversation ; the cool breezes that fan the 
face of the earth, gemmed with flow^ers, and this 
lovely arbour, excluding every obtrusive step and 
curious gaze, but admitting the free light and the 
whispering breeze through the hanging branches 
of the vine, invite us to the communion of Chris- 
tian souls ; and while we despise the pleasures of 
sense as an end, lead us gracefully and naturally 
to something higher '." 

But the most honourable memorial of Cyprian's 
wealth, is the sale of his estates for the benefit 
of the poor, and the supply of their penury, out 
of his private fortune. To the Christian duty of 
almsgiving, it seems more than probable that he 
* See Ep. i. p, 1. 



10 LIFE AND TIMES 

soon after sacrificed that rural retreat in which 
we have seen him delighting : for Pontius speaks 
of his " gardens/' which were providentially 
restored to him in his last sufferings, though he 
had sold them long before for charitable uses. 
To these gardens he retired after his baptism, and 
from them he went to meet his martyrdom. 

Opposite parties find an object in giving 
Cyprian a wife''. As the polemical importance 
of the question, whether he was married or no, is 
quite distinct from its biographical interest ; and 
as there is no direct evidence of the fact, while all 
the presumptive evidence is against it ; we may be 
excused in concluding, that Cyprian had no wife 
at the time of his conversion, and probably had 
never been married. 

Such then, so far as we can collect, was 
Thascius Cyprian. His mind was matured both by 
years and study, but yet unchilled with the frosts 
of age. He had a soul ready to sacrifice wealth, 
interest, and ease to religion, and a sense of duty ; 

^ Milner goes yet farther, and gives his imaginary wife 
an imaginary character, in order to enhance as it seems to 
him the character of Cyprian. '' In vain/' says the Histo- 
rian, (?) " his wife opposed his Christian spirit of liberality." 
In truth, the liberality of Cyprian would have been scarcely 
just, and altogether imprudent, if he had to provide for 
others, as well as himself In the passage from the life of 
Cyprian by Pontius which has given rise to these misstate- 
ments, the biographer is speaking not of Cyprian and his 
wife, but of Job and his wife. The passage is given at page 
14< of this volume. 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 11 

and family he had none. He was of good repute 
for his successful practice of an honourable and 
lucrative profession ; and he was rewarded by 
the possession of the fruits of his labour and 
reputation. The highest powers^ unblessed from 
above^ are unworthy of the office, for which 
Cyprian was designed ; and by God's grace a 
more moderate share of talents and acquirements 
may adorn the highest station : but God does 
condescend to employ the talents of his creatures ; 
and He had marked out Cyprian for His work, 
and by the ruling of His providence He had 
formed his mind, his character, and his circum- 
stances accordingly. 

It was surely providential, that Cyprian con- 
tracted an intimacy, which soon ripened into no 
common affection, with Caecilius, an aged Pres- 
byter ' of the Church of Carthage. This friend- 
ship with a Christian Priest was the means of 
Cyprian's conversion, which took place, as he 
himself informs us, at Carthage, and, as it seems 
most probable, very early in the year of grace 
246. We may perhaps collect from St. Jerome, 
that the book of Jonah was especially instru- 
mental to his conversion. " Let us," says St. 
Jerome, in his commentary on the third chapter 
of Jonah, " set before us the example of St. 
Cyprian, who was before an advocate of idolatry, 
and had arrived at so great reputation as a 

' Caecilius et aetate tunc, et honore Presbyter. Pontius. 



12 LIFE AND TIMES 

orator, as to teach rhetoric in Carthage: but 
having heard this preaching of Jonah, was con- 
verted, and repented ; and attained to such a 
height of virtue, as to preach Christ publicly, 
and to submit his neck to the sword for His 
sake." 

Nor is this either the only or the strongest 
intimation that Cyprian, before his ordination, 
and even before his baptism, was freely per- 
mitted to study the holy Scriptures. Those 
who know how painfully the concession of the 
Scriptures to the laity in some countries has 
been extorted from the Church of Rome, and 
who have not escaped the vulgar error, that 
Rome really follows antiquity as she pretends, 
may wonder to find, that in Cyprian's days the 
Bible was not a sealed book even to Catechu- 
mens. We of the Anglican Church, following 
the principles of Catholic antiquity, encourage 
that godly custom, and use the practice of the 
ancient Church, not merely as an argument, but 
as an argument a fortiori. If the laity and new 
converts in Cyprian's time were encouraged in 
this custom, much more should they be now. 
For though it is impossible that the Church 
could then have provided so ample commentaries 
upon the Scriptures ; and though Neophytes, 
fresh from the ranks of heathenism, could scarce 
be so well prepared for their interpretation, as 
all in Christian countries ought to be ; and 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 13 

though, therefore, if it were true now to say 
with Rome, that more evil than good w^ould 
arise from the reading of the Scriptures by the 
hiity'", it were much more true to have said so 
in the days of Cyprian : yet the use of the 
sacred volume was then fully indulged to the 
laity, and even to Catechumens. When only 
a Presbyter, we shall find Cyprian recommending 
to Quirinus, whom he calls his son, and who was 
probably therefore, and indeed almost certainly, 
a layman, a careful study of holy writ : and he 
himself, while only a Catechumen, read the 
Scriptures with constant and anxious attention ; 
and bringing to bear upon them the strength and 
the resources of a powerful and cultivated mind, 
he profited greatly by their perusal ; nor need 
we adopt the assertion of Pontius, at least in its 
literal sense, that the first approach of the 

•" The Romanist adduces the unnumbered heresies which 
have arisen from the rash interpretation of the Scriptures by 
individuals : but let us only remember the fact, that almost 
every heresy has originated not from the laity, but from the 
clergy ; and if we dared act upon such an indication of ex- 
pediency, we may retort upon them their reasoning, and say, 
that if from the laity, then much more from the clergy, should 
the holy Scriptures be taken. But man is not wiser than 
God : and those Scriptures which were originally written as 
much to and for the laity as the clergy ; some of which were 
actually addressed to individuals not clerical but lay, were 
surely adapted to the laity, and are not to be taken from 
them without impiety ; as they cannot be without absurdity, 
except by those who would uphold a system contradicted by 
those inspired writings. 



14 LIFE AND TIMES 

divine light left in him no darkness at all, to 
shew that he was early prepared, as well in the 
knowledge of sacred things, as in the character 
of a Christian, for all the offices of the sacred 
Ministry. Even his earliest works, some of 
which were perhaps written while he was yet" 
a layman, attest the progress which he had made 
in the true use of the Scriptures ; and we have a 
beautiful picture of the practical account ta 
which he turned these divine lessons, from the 
pencil of his affectionate biographer. ^' When 
he read of any who had received commendation 
from God, he would recommend the enquiry. 
Wherefore was it that God was well pleased with 
them ? If Job, glorious in the testimony of God, 
was declared to be a true worshipper of God, 
and one to whom none other upon earth might 
be compared, he would exhort us to do that 
which Job also did ; that while we follow the 
example of Job, we may receive the like testi- 
mony from God. Making light of the necessary 
expenses of his household. Job advanced to so 
great elevation of virtue, that he felt not the 
sacrifice which he made of temporal wealth, in 
the cause of piety. He was unbroken by penury 
and by grief: the persuasions of his wife could 
not move him ; and he bore the afflictions of his 
own body unshaken. His manly virtue stood 
unmoved in its own place ; and the deep root of 
his devotion remained firmly fixed. To no tempt- 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 15 

ation of the devil did he yield, nor did he cease 
to thank God, in faith and gratitude, even in the 
midst of all his misfortunes. His house was ever 
open to the stranger. No widow was sent away 
unprovided ; no blind man was undirected or 
unattended by him. He was a staff to the lame, 
and his hand was the protection of the poor and 
helpless. And so ought we to do, Cyprian was 
accustomed to say, if we would please God. 
/And so would he run through all the records of 
the saints of old ; and while he studied to 
imitate the best, he himself became worthy of 
imitation." 

Cyprian has himself told us, in his Epistle to 
Donatus, some of the struggles which it cost 
him to leave the world, and to embrace the life 
of a Christian, cut off, as it then was, by external 
circumstances, from the secular employments and 
honours of the state, and from the pomp and 
revelries of a too luxurious wealth. We shall 
not be surprised to find, that some of the 
temptations which assailed the young convert 
were directed against his pride of reason. Like 
Nicodemus, he could not receive the mystery of 
a spiritual regeneration. '' While," says he, '' I 
was lying in darkness and in the shadow of 
death, and while I was tossed uncertain upon 
the waves of this tempestuous world, ignorant 
of what was my real life, and an alien from truth 
and light, I thought the method of salvation 



16 LIFE AND TIMES 

which was proposed to me strange and im- 
possible.^! could not believe that man should be 
born again ; and being animated with a new 
life, put oW, in the laver of regeneration, what 
he had before been ; and though remaining the 
same in his whole natural and animal frame, 
become changed in his mind and affections." 
The favour of God, however, which had directed 
Cyprian to the good Csecilius, did not desert him 
in these difficulties ; and coming at last with 
faith and repentance to the Sacrament of 
Baptism, Cyprian received that grace of re- 
generation, at which his natural reason had 
stumbled. 

All the regulations respecting the administering 
of Baptism in the Primitive Church, tended to 
invest that Sacrament with the highest reverence 
and interest ; and none more so, perhaps, than 
the setting apart certain days^ on which alpne, 
except in extreme cases of danger, or other 
exigencies, it was administered. The custom of 
different Churches slightly varied in this matter, 
though the same spirit animated all. Easter, 
Pentecost, and the Epiphany, and in some places 
the festivals of saints, and the anniversary of the 
dedication of churches, were the times appointed 
for Baptism : and thus a double advantage was 
gained ; the solemnity of the act and the re- 
verence of the season reflected on each other 
associations of deeper and more intense devotion ; 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 17 

the number of the baptized on each occasion was 
increased, in proportion to the infrequency of the 
ceremonial". There must have been something 
singuhirly imposing in the crowd of Catechumens, 
distinguished not only by their white garments, 
but by the joyful alacrity, with which they 
hastened to the confession of their faith before 
the whole Church, and to the rite in which they 
were enrolled among the ranks, and assumed the 
duties and received the privileges of the Church 
militant in earth. 

With respect to the custom of the African 
Church, Tertullian" mentions Easter and Pente- 
cost only as the seasons of Baptism. But it 
is plain that such regulations must give place to 
circumstances, and as a Church increased greatly 
in numbers, the seasons of Baptism would be 
multiplied ; every advantage being still retained, 
which was originally consulted in the restriction 
to one or a few of the greater festivals : and we 
learn from the history of the Vandalic perse- 
cution by Victor of Utica'', that the Epiphany, 

" The number of candidates for Baptism, under these 
regulations, was so great, that Deacons were sometimes per- 
mitted to administer that Sacrament at Easter, though 
at other times it was no part of their office ; and we hear of 
three thousand persons baptized at Constantinople, on one 
of the greater Festivals. 

° De Baptismo, xix. tom. i. p. 392. Opera, Ed, Parisiisj 
1616. 

P Quoted from Bingham^ Orig. Ecc. XI. vi. 7' 

C 



18 LIFE AND TIMES 

on which clay it is supposed Christ was himself 
baptized, was afterwards added to the seasons of 
Baptism by the African Churches. 

Cyprian was probably baptized at Easter, in 
the year of grace 246. His own w^ords will best 
describe the spiritual benefit which he received 
on this occasion : and as they are the words of 
one who was yet too young a Christian to inno- 
vate and invent ; and as they appeal to the 
experience of his friend Donatus also, we may 
be sure that they express what was then taught 
and experienced to be the effects of the Sacra- 
ment of Baptism. " So entirely was I immersed 
in the deadly atmosphere of my former life, so 
enveloped in the habits and commission of sin, 
that I despaired of ever freeing myself, and 
began to look upon these things, and to love 
them, as a part of myself. But when the 
sulliage of my past iniquities was washed away 
by the waters of Baptism, the pure and serene 
light from above infused itself into my whole 
spirit : when my second birth of the Spirit had 
formed in me a new man, all at once what had 
been doubtful before, became certain ; what had 
been shut, was opened ; into the darkness light 
shined; that was easy, which before was difficult, 
and that only difficult, which before was impos- 
sible : and now I knew, that that was earthly and 
mortal, which had formerly included me in the 
bondage of sin ; but that the Holy Spirit of 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 19 

God had animated me with a new and better 
nature \" 

Thus does St. Cyprian speak of the grace of 
Baptism, as a matter of his individual experience. 
In other parts of his works he treats of Baptism 
dogmatically ; and says, again and again, that 
therein we receive the Spirit, have our sins 
remitted, and are born again. And nothing 
can more assuredly manifest the consent of the 
Church in this doctrine, than the way in which 
he makes these assertions. He does not go about 
to p7^ove them: no, this was unnecessary, since 
they were confessed by all ; nor were they in his 
day, nor till 1200 years after, a subject of con- 
troversy ; but he assumes them as premises 
mutually agreed upon, from which to deduce the 
catholic doctrine on another subjects In a 
word, in Cyprian's days, and long after, the doc- 
trine of Baptismal regeneration was no more 
questioned in the Church, than the first axioms 
in Geometry are questioned in our Schools. If 
some pretended demonstration should involve the 
denial of the proposition that the whole is greater 
than a part, it would be rejected with contempt, 

'i Epist. i. p. ^. 

' " The argument of Cyprian and his adherents, against 
the validity of heretical Baptism, proceeds upon the as- 
sumption, that Christians are born again, and receive forgive- 
ness of sins, and the Holy Ghost in Baptism." Bp. Bethell's 
General view of the Doctrine of Regeneration in Baptism, 
(Ed. 2.) p. 117, note. See also p. 85, et seq. 

c2 



20 LIFE AND TIMES 

without farther refutation : and so, if some new 
doctrine or custom should be clearly incon- 
sistent with the doctrine of baptismal regene- 
ration, that alone, in the eyes of the primitive 
Christians, would have branded it as false and 
heretical. 

It was usual for the new convert to receive 
another name at Baptism : a custom fairly derived 
from the authority of our Saviour himself, in 
giving new names to some of his earliest disciples; 
and one, too, which well enough harmonized with 
the solemn occasion of that new birth, wherein 
we put off the old man, and put on the new 
man, with all his attendant duties and privileges. 
And there was something of religion in the 
assuming a name which had been borne by some 
eminent saint or apostle ; not, as the Council of 
Nice says, that there is any merit or fortune in 
the name itself, but that it may serve as a 
stimulus to emulate the character of him from 
whom it was derived. Cyprian, actuated by 
these motives, and by affection for his master in 
Christianity, took the name Csecilius, from the 
venerable Presbyter who had first been his com- 
panion and friend, and afterwards his spiritual 
father. Henceforth then we speak not of Thas- 
cius, but of Caecilius Cyprian, except when we 
find the Saint before a heathen tribunal : and we 
may perhaps look with some little interest even 
in this change of a pronomen, when we find 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 21 

hereafter a proud professor, and a recusant of 
Cyprian's authority and fellowship, concentrating 
some portion of his malice and contempt in a 
recurrence to the old designation of Cyprian, 
calling him, ^' Cyiyrlan, alias Thascms^:'' while 

* For Cyprianus, the future Saint and Martyr, had already 
a name accounted of happy omen, as we collect from 
Augustine's panegyric: '"He who rooteth up and planteth, 
(Jer. i. 10.) came unto him; and rooting out the old 
Cyprianus, and placing him on the true foundation, planted 
the new Cyprianus in himself, and caused the true Cyprianus 
to spring out of himself. For the Church saith to Christ, 
' My beloved is a bundle of cypress.' (Cant. i. ] 5.) At the 
same time then that he was made a Christian from Christ, 
he was also made Cyprianus from the true Cypress. For he 
became a sweet savour of Christ in every place; as the 
Apostle Paul saith of himself, who also was first as a per- 
secutor a destroyer of the Church, and afterwards a 
builder of the Church as a preacher." Aug. Serm. cccxii- 
In Natali Cyp. Mai't. vol. viii. p. 1257- 

By some of the heathen, who ridiculed the application of 
his powers to the support of Christianity, this auspicious 
name of Cyprian was by a change of a single letter con- 
verted into one of opprobrious signification. " A doctis 
hujus seculi, quibus forte scripta ejus innotuerunt, derideri 
solet. Audivi ego quendam hominem sane sacrilegum, qui 
eum immutata una litera Coprianum vocaret ; quasi quod 
elegans ingeniura, et melioribus rebus aptum ad anileis 
fabulas contulisset." Lacl. v. 1 . 

This playing upon names was not unusual either among 
the Heathen or Christians. Thus the historian Tiinceus came 
to be called Epiiimceus, the calumniator, for his malignant 
lies. St. Jerome plays upon the name of Vigilantius : '' Ais 
Vigilanlium, qui k.xt oivri(p^ui7-iv hoc vocatur nomine, nam 
Domitaniius rectius diceretur." And to return to an instance 
of better omen: Dionysius of Alexandria (in Eusebius) 
speaking of a martyr contemporary with Cyprian, says, 



22 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CYPRIAN. 

Cyprian retorts the opprobrium, whatever it may 
be, of such a designation, styling his uncourteous 
correspondent, '' Florentius, alias PupianusJ' 

" A native of Africa called Macarius, that is to say^ happy ^ 
and who was happy indeed, since he possessed the favour of 
God, having been unmoved by the menaces of the judge, 
was burnt alive." Ecc. Hist. vi. 41. 



CHAPTER 11. 

ST. Cyprian's writings while a layman. — his epistle 

TO DONATUS, ON THE GRACE OF GOD. HIS TREATISE ON 

THE VANITY OF IDOLS. THE DEATH OF C^CILIUS ; 

WHO APPOINTS CYPRIAN THE GUARDIAN OF HIS FAMILY. 

ST. CYPRIAN A DEACON. DIONYSIUS OF ALEXANDRIA. — 

ST. CYPRIAN A PRESBYTER. HIS THREE BOOKS OF TESTI- 
MONIES AGAINST THE JEWS. 



St. Cyprian's active mind sought occupation 
in his altered state^ in recording the mercy of 
God in his conversion ; and in displaying to his 
former associates in pagan wickedness and super- 
stition, the vanity and folly of the religion which 
he had left. 

The first-fruit of his conversion seems to have 
been his Epistle to Donatus, on the grace of 
God; the subject of which sufficiently indicates 
its date. Donatus was a companion of Cyprian 
as a catechumen, and also at baptism ; and the 
more ingenious and learned of the two friends 
under the form of a familiar Epistle, arising out 
of certain past conversations, addresses to the 
other an appropriate exposition of the import- 



24 LIFE AND TIMES 

ance of Christianity in general, and especially of 
its initiatory rite, together with an exposure of 
the vanity and wickedness of the world, from 
which true religion is the only safe refuge. 
These important topics are rendered yet more 
interesting by many personal allusions ; and the 
whole Epistle has a tinge of individual feeling, 
which gives it much of the warmth and brilliancy, 
which are only found where the highest matters 
are treated by those who have themselves felt 
their importance. But the singular interest of 
St. Augustine's Confessions has so entirely cast 
all other works of this character into the shade, 
that I shall be excused for treating Cyprian's 
Letter to Donatus rather as an historical docu- 
ment than as an interesting literary production ; 
and for having made use of it for the hints which 
it suggests of its author's former life and character, 
instead of presenting to the reader a connected 
view of the work itself. 

Of his treatise, Oii the vanity of Idols, 
which seems also to have been written about this 
time, and while he was yet a layman, I must, 
however, speak more at length : although in this 
class of writing also St. Augustine has surpassed 
all others, before or since his days. Indeed St. 
Augustine's work De Civitate Dei, surpasses all 
other writings, adversus gentes, in learning and 
general importance, as much as his Confessions 
surpasses all other religious autobiographies. 



\ 

OF ST. CYPRIAN. 05 

There is a singular interest attached to the 
writings of the early Christians, addressed to the 
heathen, whose society and superstitions they had 
lately deserted. Whether such works appealed to 
the heathen by way of apology or of instruction, 
they must be such as a pagan could understand 
and appreciate ; such as might, if possible, in- 
terest him : and yet they must be imbued with a 
spirit of religion, seeking higher objects than any 
which this world contains. Accordingly, they 
present Christian literature to our view in a 
transition state, so to speak ; freed from the 
living death of the heathen, and casting off the 
garment spotted with the flesh ; but not yet 
soaring into the purer empyrean of Christian 
mysteries, nor opening its seraph wings to the 
full blaze of day. 

Works of this kind were often, perhaps gene- 
rally, undertaken by late converts, or by those 
whose profession did not lead them into the 
depths of theology: and such persons were on 
some accounts the best suited to such an under- 
taking. They were themselves somewhat in the 
same moral condition with the works which they 
had to produce. Neophytes, and fresh from the 
memory, even from the love of paganism ; or still 
living in the busy pursuits of the world; their 
zeal and their courage would be ardent and 
aspiring; while their arguments might be ex- 
pected, if any might, to find a way to the hearts 



26 LIFE AND TIMES 

of those for whom they wrote^ whose opinions 
were so fresh upon their minds ; on whose 
prejudices they could make so direct an attack ; 
whose language they could so readily assume. 

It would not unfrequently happen, that the 
very persons who, as Christians, thus stepped 
forth in defence of the Church, had before been 
its direct opponents, as the avowed advocates of 
paganism. It was the most appropriate method 
such persons could take to manifest the sincerity 
of their faith and repentance, and to promote the 
service of God, to exert their earliest energies as 
Christians in the demolition of the temple which 
they had before assisted in propping, or in the 
construction of outworks to that sanctuary which 
they had endeavoured to demolish. We learn 
from St. Jerome, that Cyprian himself, v/hen a 
heathen, had been a defender of pagan idolatries. 
If the words of St. Jerome imply that he had 
engaged his pen in their cause, the unhallowed 
work of his ignorance is lost : of his palinode I 
subjoin the following sketch. 

It opens with a general reference of the deities, 
temples, and images of the heathen to their 
acknowledged origin in a desire to maintain the 
memory and reverence of kings, and other bene- 
factors of the several nations ; and descending to 
particulars, he mentions Castor and Pollux, 
^sculapius, Saturn, and Mars, as illustrating 
his assertion ; shewing, moreover, that the Moors 



OF ST. CYPRIAiN. 27 

still worshipped their kings, without veiling their 
practice under any other form. 

Hence arose the variety of deities and the 
different character of their worship in various 
countries : and hence, too, the whole system of 
idolatry was exposed to manifest objections and 
ridicule ; as for instance : Wherefore is it that 
the gods, who were formerly so prolific, have long 
ceased to multiply their kind ; as if Jupiter were 
too old to be a father, and Juno had lost the 
privilege of bearing children ? Wherefore is it 
that the gods who are powerful enough to assist 
Rome, have not an equal power to defend other 
nations ? As for the origin of the gods, Romulus 
owed his apotheosis to the perjury of Proculus. 
Even courtesans were deified : and vices and 
diseases had their patron deities. Viduus, whose 
part it was to dissolve the connexion between the 
soul and the body, is banished from the city on 
account of the terrors of his office : and Venus 
the Bald is more subjected to ridicule, than the 
wounded Venus of Homer. 

Kingdoms owe their power not to merit, but 
to fortune ; Assyrians, Medes, Persians, Greeks, 
and Egyptians, succeed one another in order ; 
and at last Rome, whose very origin is enough 
to excite a blush, succeeds : and whatever 
auguries may indicate, she shall hold her 
dominion for her appointed season, and no 
longer. Indeed, what so deceitful as the rites 



28 LIFE AND TIMES 

of divination? Regulus consulted the Augurs, 
and was taken prisoner ; so did Mancinus, yet 
he passed under the yoke ; and Pauhis received 
a happy omen, and fell at Cannae : but Caius 
Caesar, who despised such indications of future 
events, seemed to be prosperous, and to conquer 
in proportion. The origin of all these things 
is in those wandering and lying spirits, which, 
being immersed in grovelling vices, and having 
lost their heavenly temper in the contact of 
earth, cease not to hurry others into their own 
depravity and perdition. 

Your own poets and philosophers, continues 
Cyprian, know that there is one God, and that 
these all are but demons^. In this, Socrates, 
Plato, and Hermes Trismegistus, consent with 
us. These wandering spirits you attach to 
statues and images. They breathe their inspi- 
ration into your prophets, animate the entrails 
of sacrifices, direct the flight of birds, dispose lots, 
contrive oracles, jumble falsehood and truth 
together, (for they are themselves deceived and 
deceivers,) disturb your existence, infest your 
sleep, inject causeless and superstitious fears, 
convulse your limbs, injure your health, irritate 
diseases to bring you to their shrines, that they 

* Perhaps the best account of the theology of the heathen,, 
especially of their apparently inconsistent doctrine of many 
(lemons and one God, may be found in Bp. Warburton's 
account of the heathen mysteries, in his Divine Legation of 
Moses demonstrated. 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 29 

may feast on your sacrifices, and then by undoing 
their own work, seem to effect a cure. By such 
means do they seek to divert you from the 
worship of the true God ; and to involve you in 
their guilt, that they may have companions in 
their punishment. But even these demons, when 
adjured by us in the name of the true God, are 
obliged to leave the bodies which they have 
possessed, conquered and confessing their real 
nature. Under the influence and mighty opera- 
tion of our exorcisms, you may hear them confess 
that they are beaten with stripes, bound in the 
fire, and more and more exceedingly tortured : 
and as they either depart by degrees, or flee 
away at once, according to the faith of the 
demoniac or of his exorcist, you may hear them 
declaring whence they came and whither they 
go. And hence the enmity of the common 
people against us ; for these demons instigate 
them to hate us, without knowing what we are, 
lest if they should once know us, they should 
cease to be our persecutors. 

There is, in short, but one God, and He is 
Lord of all. If in states and cities there can be 
no division of sovereignty without dissension, 
how much more is it necessary in the mighty 
universe that there should be one God. And 
what temple can contain God, whose temple is 
the whole world ? If you ask His name, it is 
God : as He is but one. He requires no dis- 



30 LIFE AND TIMES 

tinctive appellation. And indeed the common 
expressions of the people shew the innate sense 
of this truth in the mind : for do not all exclaim, 
O God ! and say, God seeth. May God reward 
them, and the like ? 

What Christ is, and the dispensation of 
salvation through Him, may be thus briefly 
stated. To the Jews first the favour of God was 
vouchsafed, and His promises were made ; and 
hence their ancient sanctity and prosperity. 
But they became at length, as they themselves 
confess, disobedient and idolatrous ; or if they 
confess it not^ their present condition is a token 
of the wrath of God. Now God had long ago 
declared that He would choose for Himself 
another people, who should serve Him faithfully, 
and be blessed with the highest privileges. Of 
this dispensation, Christ is the Messenger, and 
the Mediator : and as such He was foretold long 
before He came, by prophets of the Jews. 
Hence the Jew^s themselves expected Him : but 
as He was to come twice ; once in humility, and 
again in power and great glory ; they in their 
pride and folly overlooked His first coming, being 
blinded judicially for their past offences : and 
now they suffer their due reward. 

Then, after a slight sketch of the life, and 
death, and ascension of Jesus, Cyprian proceeds 
to declare the appointment of disciples to preach 
the religion of which He is the head ; and points 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 31 

out the fact, that they are manifestly doing this^ 
in the midst of sufferings and persecutions, which 
are but the filling up of the measure of the 
sufferings of Christ Himself in His followers. 
Suffering, which is the test of truth, we endure, 
that Christ the Son of God may be proclaimed 
not only by the preacher's life, but by the 
martyr's passion. Him we accompany. Him w^e 
follow ; He is our Leader, our Light, our Salva- 
tion : He will open to us the gates of Heaven, and 
make us partakers of the Father. We Chris- 
tians shall he hereafter what Christ is, if we 
imitate Christ in this world. 

Such is Cyprian's tract on the vanity of idols, 
which affords a very fair specimen of that kind of 
work in the early days of the Christian Church. 
We return now to his personal history, and to 
the first steps of his singularly rapid ecclesiasti- 
cal career. 

Cyprian soon lost his friend and spiritual 
father ; for Pontius has scarcely named Cajcilius, 
before he mentions his death ; adding, that on his 
death-bed, Caecilius left his wife and children to 
the care of Cyprian ; thus making him, who was 
heir to his piety and religious attainments, the 
guardian of his dearest relations. 

Even in the short interval, however, between 
his own baptism and the death of Cascilius, 
Cyprian had been admitted into the order of 
Deacons ; for Pontius, who was himself of that 



32 LIFE AND TIMES 

order, says, while he was one of us^, he dwelt 
with Caecilius, a man of honourable report, whose 
memory is yet held in reverence ; who had 
already been the means of his conversion to the 
faith of Christ." The interpretation of this pas- 
sage of Pontius is not without importance, since 
it is the only dii^ect testimony which we have to 
the admission of Cyprian into the Diaconate, 
before he filled the higher orders of the Church. 
Eusebius thus speaks of him : Cyprian, first a 
Rhetorician, afterwards a Presbyter, and at 
length Bishop of Carthage, eventually received 
the* crown of martyrdom ; and St. Jerome says, 
that being early elected into the Presbytery, he 
was afterwards made Bishop of Carthage "'i while 
Pontius, whose duty it was to be more explicit, 
only says in general terms, that he passed through 
each honourable step, to the highest order of the 
priesthood. Hence, contrary to all probability, 
which should surely be the interpreter of the 
silence of historians, some have chosen to deny 
that Cyprian was ever a Deacon. The silence 
of Pontius may, I think, be accounted for, from 
the exaggerated stream of panegyric, in which 
the life by that author is composed; for he 

b Erat ille etiam de nobis &c. Pontius. 

*= Christianus factus, omnem substantiam suam pauperibus 
erogavit, ac post non multum temporis electus in Presby- 
terum, etiam Episcopus Carthaginiensis constitutus est. 
HiERONYMi, Cat. Script. Eccl. vol. i. p. 187. Editio 
Francofurti 1684. 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 33 

seems determined to mention nothing which he 
cannot convert into a singular mark of honour in 
his idolized master. Hence, while his own 
modesty prevented his speaking of the order to 
which he himself belonged as an honourable dis- 
tinction, he could scarce find fit words to express 
the fact, that Cyprian had passed through it. In 
such general terms as these, then, Pontius speaks 
of Cyprian's advancement : '^ He rose rapidly 
from the order of Priests to that of Bishops ; for 
who would hesitate to advance such an one 
through the highest degrees of honour ?" And 
again ; ^^ this surely is a sufiicient commendation 
of his excellence, that he was elected to the 
honour of the Priesthood, and of the Episcopate, 
by the judgment of God, and the favour of the 
people, even while he was yet accounted but a 
Neophyte." We cannot wonder, however, that 
some should make use of such expressions to 
prove, in spite of probability, that Cyprian was 
never a Deacon; when we find Blondel asserting, 
in spite of a yet greater probability, and in 
opposition even to these plain assertions, that he 
became a Bishop, without ever having been a 
Priest. 

But though St. Cyprian was doubtless a 
Deacon at the time of Caecilius's death, it is 
certain that he was not yet advanced to the 
Priesthood ; for in that case, neither could 
Caecilius have committed to him, nor could he 

D 



34 LIFE AND TIMES 

have accepted, the guardianship of his wife and 
children, without breach of ecclesiastical disci- 
pline ; which debarred Priests and Bishops from 
taking upon themselves any secular duties, espe- 
cially those of a guardian or executor. The 
Deacon, not as yet permitted to consecrate the 
Eucharist, or to administer Baptism, except under 
peculiar circumstances, was not rigidly tied down 
by the sanctity of his office to purely spiritual 
avocations ; indeed his duties, even in respect of 
the Church, required some degree of intercourse 
with the daily offices of common life ; to him, 
therefore, such a charge was permitted. And 
there was nothing inconsistent in these regu- 
lations ; as there might seem to be if they were 
still enforced, when the Diaconate has become a 
step soon passed over, and taken almost invariably 
rather as an approach to the Priesthood, than for 
its own sake : for in the early Church many 
remained for life in the order of Deacons ; while 
others passed through it, with a rapidity as little 
known among us as the opposite continuance in 
it. Cyprian, who passed hastily through the 
Diaconate, and his panegyrist Pontius^, who pro- 
bably never advanced beyond it, afford examples 
in point. 

It was during the reign of the Emperor Philip, 

^ Jerome, speaking of Pontius, calls him only " Pontius 
Diaconus Cypriani." Cat. Script. Ecc. vol. i. p. 187- Nicholas 
Ferrar is an example of the like kind in our Church. 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 35 

while the Church was free from persecution, that 
Cyprian was thus adorning the progressive states 
of a catechumen, of a lay communicant, and of 
the Diaconate, by his personal and active piety 
and charity, and by his works in defence of 
Christianity, and in illustration of Christian 
doctrine. Meanwhile one of his great contem- 
poraries was advancing, in a distant part of 
Africa, to the summit of his dignity and repu- 
tation ; for it was at this time that Dionysius 
was appointed to fill the Episcopal throne of 
Alexandria, vacant on the death of Heraclas, 
who had been its occupant for sixteen years*. 
The Epistles of Cyprian and of Dionysius form a 
large part of the authentic materials for the 
ecclesiastical history of this age : and we shall 
often have occasion to cite the authority of the 
Prelate of Alexandria. 

It was probably in December of this year 
(247) that Cyprian was made a Presbyter. 
Without distinctively referring any of his acts or 
writings to this part of his life, Pontius tells us, 
in general terms, that as he had been active as a 
layman, so he was also as a Priest. To this 
season we may probably refer his three books of 
Testimonies against the Jews : this at least is the 
conclusion of the Benedictine editors of Cyprian's 
works, who have well remarked, that the contents, 
or rather the omissions, of this work, indicate the 
* Pearson's Annals. Eusebius vi. 35. 

d2 



36 LIFE AND TIMES 

time at which it was composed ; since it contains 
no allusions to those events in which the interest 
and energies of Cyprian were so deeply engaged, 
during all the remainder of his life ; while even 
some of his principles are less vividly displayed 
than they would have been at any subsequent 
period. In the third book, for instance, he 
collects several Scriptural testimonies against 
heretics and schismatics; but he would have been 
fuller and more vehement on this point, had he 
written amidst the very flames and commotions 
which were excited by heretics in his own 
diocese. 

The three books into which this work is dis- 
tributed are addressed to Quirinus, who was 
probably a young Christian, for Cyprian calls 
him his dear son. It seems that Quirinus had 
requested his more accomplished friend to 
furnish him, from the Scriptures, with the 
evidences of Christianity ; in consequence of 
which request these books were written. The 
two first books were given to Quirinus, accom- 
panied with an introductory Epistle, in which 
Cyprian thus unfolds his plan. *' I have com- 
prised the subject of this work in two books of 
nearly equal size ; in the first book I have 
endeavoured to shew, that the Jews, as it had 
been foretold, had departed from God, and 
forfeited the favour of the Lord, which had been 
at first granted to them, and promised to their 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 37 

posterity; but that Christians, whose faith is the 
ground of their acceptance with God, have 
succeeded in their place, out of all nations, and 
from every quarter of the globe. The second book 
contains a statement of the mystery of Christ ; 
shewing that he is come, as the prophets had 
foretold, that he has done and suffered all that 
had been presignified concerning him." In the 
third book, in conformity with another request of 
Quirinus, Cyprian presents in the words of 
Scripture, a summary of the duties of Christians ; 
following the same plan which he had pursued in 
the two former books, and adding nothing of his 
own to the citations from holy writ, but the 
connecting heads of the several sections ^. For a 

^ Some notion of the contents of these books may be 
derived from the following heads. 

BOOK I. 

1. That the Jews grievously offended God, by leaving the 
Lord, and following idols. 

2. And also because they believed not the prophets, but 
slew them. 

3. That it was foretold that they should neither recognize, 
understand, nor receive the Lord. 

12. That the old baptism should cease, and another be 
instituted. 

16. That the old sacrifice should cease to be offered, and 
that a new one should be offered in its stead. 

17. That the old Priesthood should be extinct, that a new 
Priest should come, whose Priesthood should be eternal. 

BOOK II. 

1. That Christ is the first-begotten of God, and himself 
the wisdom of God, by whom all things were made. 
6. That Christ is God. 



38 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CYPRIAN. 

better understanding of these matters, he remits 
Quirinus to the Scriptures themselves, assuring 
him that strength will be given to him as he 
reads ; and that his insight into sacred things 
and all spiritual truth will be increased, as he 
goes through the contents of the Old and New 
Testaments. 

Thus was Cyprian preparing himself, by a 
diligent and useful career in the inferior stations 
of the Church, for the highest order of the 
Christian hierarchy, to which he was soon most 
unexpectedly raised. 

I I . That he was to be of the seed of David according to 
the flesh. 

19- That Christ is the bridegroom, and the Church his 
bride, from whom a spiritual progeny should spring. 

BOOK III. 

l6. The benefit of martyrdom. 

24. That we can approach the Father only through 
Christ. 

25. That no man can enter into the kingdom of God 
unless he be baptized and regenerated. 

26. That it avails little to receive Baptism and the 
Eucharist, unless we advance in good works. 

53. That the secrets of God are inscrutable, and that our 
faith therefore should be implicit. 

.54. That none is free from sin and corruption. 
65. That all sins are cast off in baptism. 

III. That the sacrifices of the wicked are evil. 

116. rhat he loveth God more, to whom the more sins 
are remitted at Baptism. 

120. That we should continue instant in prayer. 



CHAPTER III. 



CYPRIAN CHOSEN BISHOP. HIS ATTEMPT TO ESCAPE. THE 

PART OF THE PEOPLE IN HIS ELECTION. THE CONSTITU- 
TION OF THE CHURCH IN THE CYPRIANIC AGE. THE STATE 

OF MORALS AND OF DISCIPLINE IN CYPRIAN's DIOCESE, 
AND THE ACTS AND WRITINGS WHICH AROSE OUT OF THE 

CONDITION OF THE CHURCH. THE EPISTLES OF CYPRIAN. 

THE CASE OF GEMINIUS VICTOR: COMMEMORATION OF 

THE DEAD I THE PRIMITIVE PRACTICE A WITNESS AGAINST 

ROMISH ERRORS. THE CASE OF THE PLAYER : — THE STATE 

OF THE STAGE IN CYPRIAN's TIME. THE CASE OF THE 

REBELLIOUS DEACON. — THE CASE OF THE STNEISAKTOI. — 
" ANCIENT CHRISTIANITY." 



The elevation of St. Cyprian to the Episcopal 
throne of Carthage, followed very soon upon his 
admission to the Priesthood : for at the death 
of Donatus% in the year 248, the w^hole body of 
the people, with the concurrence of by far the 

■ It is only from a casual expression of Cyprian, in one of 
his Epistles to Cornelius, that we learn the name of his pre- 
decessor : Antecessorum nostroruyn Fahiani et Donati. Agrip- 
pinus, of whom we shall afterwards have occasion to speak, 
is, I believe, the only Carthaginian Prelate before Cyprian 
and Donatus, whose name has descended to these times. 



40 LIFE AND TIMES 

greater part of the clergy, demanded Cyprian for 
their Bishop ; overlooking the youth of the 
Christian, in the singular merit of the man. 
The modesty of the young Presbyter, however, 
would have given place to his seniors ; and he 
actually withdrew, concealing himself for a while 
from the eager search of the people. But the 
providence of God had marked Cyprian as their 
Bishop ; and when the people had for some time 
surrounded his house, besieging the door, and 
searching every passage and retirement in their 
officious zeal, he appeared at last, baffled in his 
concealment, before the assembled crowd. The 
people received him with transports of joy, pro- 
portioned to the earnestness of tlieir hopes and 
expectations. Yet his consecration was not 
wholly free from opposition ; for certain Presby- 
ters, who seem to have had some previous pique 
against him, opposed his election, and contrived 
to embitter a considerable portion of his Episco- 
pate with their factious and schismatical opposi 
tion. So far from rigid truth is the boast of 
Pontius on behalf of his patron, '' Quidam illi 
restiterunt, etiam ut vinceret :" — some opposed 
him, that his dignity might be graced by his 
overcoming their opposition ; unless indeed it 
was Pontius's meaning, that he overcame evil 
with good ; for he presently adds, that it was a 
wonder to many how patiently he endured this 
opposition, and how readily he pardoned it, so as 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 41 

to receive his opponents into tlie number of his 
most intimate and friendly acquaintance. 

St. Cyprian is not the only example that 
antiquity presents, of one avoiding the Episco- 
pate so pertinaciously, as to resort even to con- 
cealment or flight. Indeed there was so much 
of personal risk, so little of temporal advantage, 
and so great a weight of spiritual responsibility, 
attached to the highest pastoral office in a per- 
secuted Church, that it is no wonder that many 
were anxious to escape from the invidious 
dignity. We shall presently find the see of 
Rome vacant for some months, because of the 
danger which must inevitably beset one who 
should fill it ; and when the election was at last 
made under a favourable aspect of affairs, we 
shall find Cyprian magnifying the virtuous and 
disinterested courage of the man who did not 
shrink from the mingled duties, dangers, and 
honours, of that station. In the mind of Cyprian, 
however, the fear of danger could have had no 
place ; and it was doubtless his unaffected 
modesty which prompted his intended rejection 
of the dignity which the acclamations of the 
people of Carthage would have conferred on 
him. St. Athanasius, like Cyprian, a man too 
bold to flee from danger, and indeed in no 
immediate apprehension that it would await his 
elevation to the Episcopate, affords a parallel 
example. Apollinaris the Syrian, as quoted by 



42 LIFE AND TIMES 

Sozomen^ tells us^ that Alexander, Bishop of 
Alexandria, being near his end, was divinely- 
moved to appoint Athanasius his successor. As 
he lay, therefore, expecting his death, he called 
aloud for Athanasius, who had fled to avoid the 
choice which was to fall upon him. An attendant 
of the same name answered the dying Prelate, 
who only said, that it was not he whom he called, 
and continued still to call ^' Athanasius ! Atha- 
nasius !" At length the good Alexander exclaimed 
with a prophetic impulse, *^ Thou thinkest to 
escape, Athanasius ; but thou shalt not escape." 
And he was accordingly found by the direction 
of Providence. 

Nor was the part which the people had in the 
choice of a Bishop in Cyprian's case at all unusual. 
SS. Ambrose and Augustine present remarkable 
instances of a like choice. Indeed this seems to - 
have been one of the methods in which God 
designated certain persons for this high office; as 
he did also in other ways, quite beyond our 
present experience; and, since he has established 
the Church in a settled form and order, beside 
the necessity of the case. It would be almost as 
unreasonable to wait for the expressed consent of 
the people in the choice of a Bishop now, or 
even to give to their acclamations a very material 
influence, as it would be to expect that his 
successor should be appointed by Divine admoni- 
" SozoMEN, ii. 17. 






OF ST. CYPRIAN. 43 

tion in a dream to a dying Bishop, or that a 
dove should alight upon the head of the person 
to whom God would direct the choice of His 
Church. Cyprian, Athanasius, and Fabian % 
were designated by such means ; but we therein 
find, not a rule of discipline, but a manifestation 
of God's special purpose ; not a principle of 
general application, but a particular interposition 
of Providence. 

Having now accompanied Cyprian in his 
elevation through the several orders of the 
Apostolic Ministry, to the Episcopate, the Sacer- 
dotii sublime fastigium, we may pause for a 
moment to take a rapid view of the polity of the 
Church, as it appears in ecclesiastical records of 
that period ^. 

The whole body of the Church was divided 
first of all into two grand divisions. Clergy and 
Laity: a distinction which was first made by 
Jesus Christ himself, and which was guarded 
most reverently by his Apostles, and by the whole 
of Christendom for many ages : yet Dodwell has 
to meet the objections of Rigaltius against the 
primitive authority of this division of the Church, 



c EusEBiT Ecc. Hut. vi. 29. 

'^ Those who would acquaint themselves with the minutiae 
of this question, will consult Bishop Sage's principles of the 
Cyprianic age, with his vindication of that work. Stilling- 
fleet, in his Unreasonableness of the Present Separation, is 
also pretty full upon the subject. 



44 LIFE AND TIMES 

which he does with his usual learning in his first 
Cyprianic dissertation, de voce cleri sacri ordinis 
propria, Dodwell's arguments are still important, 
for they hear on the position of all those sects 
who trace their origin, or that of their Ministry, 
to lay interference ; in short, to any thing but 
Apostolical derivation. If there is a Clergy in 
the Church of Christ, and if the office of the 
Clergy is not only to minister for men, but to 
minister from God, then it is clear that some- 
thing more than the choice of the people or the 
assumption of the individual is required to give a 
man a place in the Clergy: and it is equally 
clear, that the intervening of a few or many 
successions to an usurped office does not better 
the position of the last intruder. If A, having 
no power to ordain, that is to transmit the office 
of a minister from God, pretends to ordain B, 
and B to ordain C, and so on to M or N, since 
none of the intervening persons can transmit 
more than he received, and B in fact received 
absolutely nothing from A, who had absolutely 
nothing to give, then are M and N mere lay- 
men, with this only addition, whether it be of 
honour or of shame, that they are assuming a 
sacred office which belongs not to them. 

How many sects are now without Clergy, I will 
not pretend to say. 

In St. Cyprian's time, the distinction between 
the Clergy and the Laity was so strictly guarded, 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 45 

not only by ecclesiastical laws, but also by 
popular opinion and feeling, that it would have 
been morally impossible for a single person to 
usurp a single pastoral function without ordi- 
nation : an intruder even into the Deacon's office 
would have been rej ected every where with scorn and 
indignation, and his temerity would have found its 
proper reward in excommunication. But nothing 
can be more unjust than to suppose that the 
Laity were therefore depressed, or deprived of 
their proper place and influence in the Church : 
so far from it, that the very plainness of the line 
of demarcation by which they w^ere separated 
from the Clergy, giving them a definite position, 
ensured them also definite privileges. Were the 
Laity confused with the Clergy, all ecclesiastical 
affairs must inevitably fall, sooner or later, into 
the hands of the Clergy ; for they would be the 
best fitted for them by the habits and oppor- 
tunities of their office ; and having this direction 
pointed out to their ambition, they would cer- 
tainly follow it, unless they were more than men 
in virtue, and as certainly succeed, unless they 
were less than men in conduct^: but with a 
defined province for each. Clergy and Laity have 

'^ The immense influence of the Clergy in secular affairs 
during the middle ages, when the case just supposed was 
reversed, and the Clergy were more secularized, instead of 
the Laity being more confused with the Clergy, fortifies this 
reasoning with an eoc abundanti example. 



46 LIFE AND TIMES 

their proper place^ from which neither the one 
nor the other will advance or retire, if they know 
the real strength of their own position, or consult 
the real welfare of the whole body. 

We have seen indeed already, in the election 
of St. Cyprian to the Episcopate, how great a 
voice the people had in those days, when the dis- 
tinction between Clergy and Laity was most 
marked; and many other proofs might be added, 
shewing that they had a more effectual influence 
in the ecclesiastical polity of those times. St. 
Cyprian himself always appears most anxious to 
save their privileges, and to give them their 
proper place in the body of the Church ^ 

The Clergy, who were set apart for the 
pastoral office by a solemn Ordination, of which 
the Bishop was the sole dispenser, were dis- 
tinguished into three ranks. Deacons, Pres- 
byters, and Bishops. These had each its 
defined province distinct from the rest, just as 
clearly as the Laity distinct from the Clergy. 
The Bishop was the chief ruler in the Church 
under God, and the fountain of authority to all 
the rest ; especially he was the channel through 
which whatever partook of a sacramental efficacy 
or character was transmitted from God to the 

f I may refer on this head to a little Pamphlet published 
anonymously by myself some two years past, Oii (he 
admission of Lay Members to the Ecclesiastical Synods of the 
Protestant Episcopal Church in Scotland. 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 47 

Church. Hence the rule, that nothing should be 
done x^P^^^ 'ETrto-KOTrov, or auev yvcojjirjs rod 
EtTTLaKOTTov: which means something more than 
that it ought not to be done without the Bishop's 
sanction ; but that if it were so done, it would be 
as if not done at all, illegal, and even invalid. 
So St. Ignatius says, that without the Bishop 
there is no communion ; and such passages from 
other primitive authors might be cited almost 
without end. 

The distinctive theological office of the Bishop, 
that which could under no circumstances be 
committed to any other, that which not only 
must not be done xcopls' ^Ettlo-kottov, but which 
must be done b?/ the Bishop, was Ordination. In 
this were the Bishops always reckoned more 
especially the successors of the Apostles, and the 
express ordinance of God. The Presbyterate, 
which was the next order, had its own functions 
also, which were derived from the Bishop, but 
could not be committed to the Deacon, especially 
the consecration of the blessed Eucharist ; and 
this order also was referred to the immediate 
ordinance of Jesus Christ. The last order of the 
Pastoral Clergy was that of the Deacons, which 
was instituted by the Apostles themselves, and to 
which were committed other functions and offices, 
into which the Laity were not permitted to 
intrude, though they were below those of the 
Presbyterate. The highest office for which the 



48 LIFE AND TIMES 

Deacon was held competent was the adminis- 
tration of Baptism, to which he was ordinarily 
appointed by permission of the Bishop on the 
greater festivals, at which the nmnber of candi- 
dates was so great, that the Presbyters and 
Bishops were not sufficient for the task : in some 
places it seems to have been the common prac- 
tice for Deacons to baptize^. 

Thus then, in St. Cyprian's time, and for all 
the generations in the Church before it, a proper 
Episcopacy, in its strictest theological sense, was 
established. That this Episcopacy was also 
diocesan, or such that the authority of the 
Bishop extended over many separate congre- 
gations, is equally clear from the whole history 
of the Church in those days. In Rome there 
were at this very time forty-six Presbyters, seven 
Deacons, seven Sub-Deacons, forty-two Acolythes, 
fifty-two Exorcists, Readers and Ostiarii, with 
above fifteen hundred widows and poor, depen- 
dent on the bounty of the Church. All these 
were under the Episcopal jurisdiction, that is, in 
the diocese of Cornelius ^ : and when the number 
of Christians at Rome is estimated from the 
number of Clergy, officers and poor among them, 
it will be too absurd to suppose that they were 
not many Churches, or separate congregations. 

« Bingham, Orig. Ecc. II. xx. 9. 

" See the letter of Cornelius in Eusebius, Ecc. Hist. vi. 43. 
In Cyrus, the diocese of Theodoret, there were 6OO parishes, 
or Churches under the government of separate Presbyters. 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 4f) 

The Churches of Rome* and Carthage, 
together with many others, were also at this 
time Metropolitan, or Archiepiscopal, as will 
appear abundantly during the course of this 
work. This is indeed rather a question of polity 
than of theology ; the Archbishop or Metropoli- 
tan being elevated above the Suffragan Bishop 
not in theological order, but in ecclesiastical 
rank and pow^r : it is however very satisfactory 
to see our own ecclesiastical form so exactly paral- 
leled in the primitive Church, and before the 
alliance with the State can have secularized the 
Church, or in any way modified her constitution. 

Thus far, then, we are wholly in accordance 
with the primitive Church ; for even the place of 
the Laity, and their influence in the councils of 
the Church, which escapes a careless search under 
another form, is yet found not too minute, but, 
on the contrary, rather exaggerated, in the 
alliance of Church and State, and in the King's 
supremacy^ : and nothing can be clearer than 
the identity of our constitution both theological 
and ecclesiastical ; of our Churches Episcopal 
and Metropolitan, our Episcopate, Presbyterate, 

' The highest rank to which the Church of Rome ever 
attained by right, was to that of a Patriarchal See, which is 
to Metropolitan Churches what they are to the Suffragan 
Sees. But it is to be observed, that Britain is not in the 
Patriarchate of Rome. 

^ See Hooker, Ecc. Pol. viii. 8. It is well to find a saving 
of important principle in what seems our weakest point. 

E 



50 l^lFE AND TIMES 

and Diaconate, with those of the Church of 
Carthage in St. Cyprian's time. 

The only question which occurs is suggested 
by the enumeration of ecclesiastical officers 
before mentioned, who were subject to Cornelius 
in his Church of Rome ; and we shall meet with 
the same frequently in Carthage, and other 
Churches. Even here, however, the difference 
is not so great as at first sight appears. For first 
of all, the inferior orders, Subdeacons, Acolyths, 
and the rest, were never suspected to be of 
divine appointment, or of necessary use in the 
Church ; nor were they entrusted with any 
charge approaching to a pastoral or sacramental 
character. In the next place, though under 
different names, we have very nearly the same 
servants of the Church ; Churchwardens, 
Parish Clerks, Vergers, Sextons, &c. succeeding 
to all the offices of Subdeacons, Readers, Ostiarii, 
and the rest. One difference we confess, and 
would gladly see removed, but it is rather in the 
character of the times, than in the spirit or consti- 
tution of the Church : — that whereas in Cyprian's 
time whatever was at all connected with the 
service of God was regarded with greater reve- 
rence ; and so it was required that all persons 
engaged within the precincts of the Church, 
even the very servants, should be separated to 
their occupation by a religious ceremony : now 
we have reduced religion within the confines of 



(3F ST. CYPRIAN. 51 

the smallest province in which she can maintain 
her state ; and the Apostolic principles, and the 
sentiment which led to consecrations having 
languished, the very thing itself seems out of 
date. 

But we must return to St. Cyprian in the 
discharge of his Episcopal office. His attention 
seems to have been turned, immediately on his 
elevation, to the restoration of discipline, which 
had been much relaxed during the long peace 
which the Church had enjoyed'; and in some 
instances to the correcting of most serious 
abuses, which had crept into the manners even 
of ecclesiastics. To this end he called in the 
advice and assistance of his clergy and people, 
and wrote his Tract de hahitu virginum, together 
with several Epistles, adverting to particular 
cases which called for his interference. 

And now our attention is arrested by the first 
of those Epistles of St. Cyprian, which throw so 
much light on the history, laws, and principles of 
the Church in his days. Geminius Victor, an ec- 
clesiastic of the Church at Furni, and not impro- 
bably its Bishop, at his death appointed Geminius 
Faustinus, then a Presbyter, the guardian or 
executor of his will. The necessity of keeping 

' Sulpicius says, that after the persecution under Severus, 
the Church enjoyed a peace of thirty-eight years, except 
when Maximinus persecuted some particular Churches. 
Africa did not, in all probability, suffer in this partial 
afiliction. See Pearson's Aimals. 

e2 



52 LIFE AND TIMES 

the Clergy free from the cares of this world, and 
especially from those duties which would bring 
them within the precincts of the court of the 
heathen magistrate^ had suggested laws to pre- 
vent any of the Clergy from undertaking such an 
office, under pain of degradation. The civil 
law, on the other hand, on account of the diffi- 
culty with which persons were found to take on 
themselves places of such trouble and responsi- 
bility, (the discharge of which, however, was 
necessary to the proper transaction of affiiirs,) 
had made it penal to refuse them. The Church, 
therefore, was obliged to inflict the penalty, in 
some instances, not on the Clergyman who ex- 
ecuted, but on the testator who imposed, such an 
office ; and now Cyprian was called upon to 
enforce the laws of the Church against Victor, 
who had nominated Faustinus his executor. 
Accordingly in a letter to the Clergy and people 
at Furni, he expresses his regret at such a 
breach of discipline ; cites the decision of a 
former Synod condemning the practice, of which 
Victor had been guilty; and reasons, in general 
terms, on the necessity on which the Ecclesi- 
astical Canons on that head were founded. 
No 7nan that warreth entangleth himself with the 
affairs of this life, that he may please him who 
hath chosen him to he a soldier: and if this rule 
should regulate the life of every Christian, much 
more of every ecclesiastic, that he may give 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 58 

himself the more entirely to the service of the 
Altar : on the same principle proceeded the 
exemption of the Levites^ under the Mosaical 
law, from the cares of this life : and all this was 
matm'ely considered by those who made the 
ecclesiastical rule which Victor has disregarded. 
^' Wherefore/' continues Cyprian, '' since Victor 
has dared, contrary to the law lately enacted in 
Council, to nominate Faustinus his executor, no 
oblation ought to be made for his death, nor any 
prayer be offered in his name in the Church : that 
so we may maintain the decree of the Bishops 
which was religiously made, and of necessity ; 
and that a warning may be given at the same 
time to the rest of the brethren, not to call off 
the Priests and Ministers of the Altar and Church 
of God, by the distracting cares of this world." 

This method of enforcing an Ecclesiastical 
Canon, by forbidding the mention of the offender, 
even after his death, in the service of the Church, 
leads us to consider another primitive rule and 
custom. The oblations of the faithful in the 
Holy Eucharist were made not only for them- 
selves individually, but for the whole Church ; 
and, of consequence, for the dead in Christ ; who 
were ever held to be a portion of the Church, as 
certainly as those who were still living in 
the flesh : and though the ancient Fathers, with 
their characteristic caution in handling sacred 
and mysterious subjects, did not venture to 



64 LIFE AND TIMES 

describe what was the specific advantage which 
the faithful dead might receive from this act ; 
yet they held it highly congruous to suppose, (as 
who will not ?) that when the memorials of 
Christ's death and sacrifice were solemnly cele- 
brated on earth, it was not without some benefit 
to all who were truly interested in that stupen- 
dous act of his love. The Angelic Host they 
believed to be present at the Holy Eucharist : 
and as the celebrants communicated with seraphic 
spirits by their presence ; why should they not 
also with those with whom they might certainly 
be present in spirit, being mystically joined with 
them in one body, even Christ's ; and so all his 
whole Church on earth and in paradise be 
united by a mutual benefit ? 

Nor was there any superstition in the belief, 
that the prayers of the righteous, especially 
when assembled as a Church, and sanctified by 
the celebration of the most sublime mysteries of 
our faith, might benefit the souls of those who 
awaited, in their separate state, the full fruition 
of their bliss. But here, as in the case of 
oblations, the primitive Church pretended to 
unravel no mystery; and sought not to explain 
or to particularize what was most excellent in its 
sacred obscurity and generality. As they offered 
for the blessed dead as well as for themselves, so 
also they 'prayed for them, but in both cases 
without fanaticism, and without superstition. 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 66 

In order to the greater interest in this part of 
the service of the Church, the names of those, 
for whom offerings and prayers were made, were 
recited aloud, out of the diptychs or sacred rolls 
of the Church. Patriarchs, Prophets, Apostles, 
the Blessed Virgin, and the Martyrs of the 
Church, were first mentioned ; and then those 
pious men who had departed in immediate com- 
munion with that particular Church were enu- 
merated in order ; especially the Bishops, and 
other ecclesiastics. Besides the mysterious 
benefits which might thence accrue to the de- 
parted, it was not doubted that this was a fit 
honour to their name and memory: and to the 
living, it had this assured benefit ; that it was a 
great inducement to them to cultivate that unity 
of the faith, and those virtues which were thus 
rewarded : — that it kept up in their hearts the 
memory and affections of the dead, with a pious 
hope of a reunion with them at the resurrection : — 
that it was a marked confession of the great 
truth which Christ himself taught, when he said, 
that God was not the God of the dead, but of 
the living; viz. that all saints live in and to 
him : — that even if the dead received not a bless- 
ing, yet at least this service performed by the 
living, in piety and charity and hope, was accept- 
able to God, and so would not miss its reward : — 
that it was an instrument of discipline in the 
hands of the Church, by which the living might 



5'6 LIFE AND TIMES 

be encouraged to a godly life ; for they could 
not choose but be excited to virtue by the pious 
memorial of the blessed^ and affected sadly, yet 
profitably, by the solemn verdict of the Church, 
w^hich refused the wicked a participation in these 
honours and benefits. 

The judgment, then, of St. Cyprian against 
Geminius Victor, amounted to this ; that his 
name should not be inserted in the diptychs of 
the Church, nor any memorial be made of him 
at the Altar, at which he had once communicated. 
If this should seem a severe sentence, the neces- 
sity of the case should be considered, and the 
importance of supporting, by every possible 
means, a canon which seems at first sight 
wanting in the more rigid moral sanctions. 
Moreover it should be considered, that this 
excommunication of Victor after his death, was 
the infliction only of an ecclesiastical form of 
discipline, and by no means amounted to a 
judgment of his state before God; to whom 
mercy was still left, though disapproval was 
the duty of the Church. The conduct of 
Cyprian is justified, moreover, by the constant 
practice of the Church, and even by an act of 
General Council ; for the sixth Council having 
anathematized Pope Honorius, as a Monothelite, 
after his death, together with several other 
Bishops, ordered that their names should be 
erased from the diptychs. And the judgment 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 57 

of a particular Bishop or Church might after- 
wards be reversed, as in the case of a person 
excommunicated in his lifetime without suf- 
ficient cause : thus when Chrysostom had been 
unjustly condemned and excommunicated, the 
Western Bishops would not communicate with 
the Bishops of Eg^ypt, the Bosphorus, Thrace, 
and the East, until they had restored the name 
of Chrysostom to the diptychs of his Church. 
Arsacius, the successor of Chrysostom, was actually 
deprived of their countenance ; which Atticus, 
the next Bishop, only obtained, by submitting to 
their just demands'". 

To those who give only a cursory attention to 
such matters, what we have just said may seem 
to array the Church in the days of St. Cyprian 
on the side of Rome, in her custom of oblations 
and prayers for the dead, and in her doctrine of 
purgatory, which grew out of that custom. I 
must, therefore, point out the difference between 
the Roman and the primitive practice : and 
shew that the latter does not presuppose, but 
actually refute the doctrine of purgatory. 

The oblations and prayers which were offered 
for the dead in the Primitive Church, were 
offered not for the unholy, but for the blessed 
dead ; not for those concerning whose state the 
Church was in doubt ; but for those concerning 
whom there was never any question, but that 

■" Theodoreti Ecc, Hisl. v. 34. vol, iii. p. IO76. Ed, 
Halee 1769. * 



58 LIFE AND TIMES 

they were received into Abraham's bosom, or 
Paradise : not, therefore, that they might be 
delivered from any, I know not what torments, 
but that their joy might be more full even in 
their state of expectancy ; and that the time of 
the consummation of their glory might be 
hastened : a petition which we make expressly 
in the words of our Funeral Service, and virtually, 
whenever we pray. Our Father, Thy kingdom 
come. 

And therefore it was that the primitive Chris- 
tians prayed for the greatest saints, and for those 
only whom they believed to be in their rest in 
Paradise : and even though they had believed in 
a purgatory, it was not to such as might be 
supposed to be in that place, that these prayers 
referred ; else Gemini us Victor, before men- 
tioned, should rather have been the more than 
the less remembered in the prayers of his Church, 
for the offence which he had committed. But, 
in fact, there is not a single vestige of any thing 
like the doctrine of purgatory till long after the 
days of Cyprian : and though Augustine certainly 
gave occasion to the less modest assertions of 
subsequent doctors, by his very guarded expres- 
sion of a question, whether a place of intermediate 
purgation might not hy possibility exist ; yet even 
Augustine's modest opinions were not in accord- 
ance with the Romish dogmatical assertions, 
guarded by eternal sanctions". 

" " Constanter teneo purgatorium esse, animasque ibi 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 59 

But if prayer for the dead, according to the 
primitive notion, is incongruous with the doc- 
trine of purgatory, it is perfectly irreconcilable 
with the practice of praying to the saints, or of 
using their mediation with God. It were almost 
impossible to pray first for, and then to or 
through, any being : but the primitive Christians 
actually did pray for the Blessed Virgin, the 
Holy Apostles, and such other saints as Rome 
BOW prays to, and makes her mediators °. 

detentas fidelium sufFragiis juvari." " Hanc veram Catho- 
licam fidem, extra quam nemo salvus esse potest." Creed of 
Pope 1 ius IV. 

The Bishop of Ixeter, in his Letters to Charles Butler, has 
proved at length that Augustine's notion of purgatory was 
not the same as that of Rome at the present day. Even 
Augustine would scarce escape the penalty of damnation for 
the rejection of this Article ; and certainly all the preceding 
Fathers of the Church cannot but be condemned. 

° It is very instructive to see the change made by the 
gradual perversion of doctrine, in those public Prayers which 
are the very best records of the tenets of a Church : I there- 
fore transcribe the following passage from Bingham's Grig. 
Ecc. book XV. iii. 15. which bears directly on this point. 

" It appears from all the ancient Liturgies under the 
names of St. Basil, Chrysostom, Gregory Nazianzen, and 
Cyril, that they prayed for all saints, the V^irgin Mary 
herself not excepted. And it is remarkable, that in the old 
Roman Missal they were used to pray for the soul of 
St. Leo, as Hincraan, a writer of the ninth age, informs us, 
who says the prayer ran in this form, " Grant, O Lord, that 
this oblation may be of advantage to the soul of thy servant 
Leo, which Thou hast appointed to be for the relaxation of 
the sins of the whole world." But this was thought so 
incongruous in the following ages, that in the later Sacra- 
mentaries or Missals it was changed into this form : '' Grant, 



60 LIFE AND TIMES 

It seems then, on a careful review of this 
matter of prayers and oblations for the dead, that 

O Lord, we beseech Thee, that this oblation may be of 
advantage to us by the intercession of St. Leo/' as Pope 
Innocent the Third assures us it was in his time. And such 
another alteration was made in Pope Gregory's Sacramenta- 
rium. For in the old Greek and Latin edition there is this 
prayer : " Remember, O Lord, all Thy servants, men and 
women, who have gone before us in the seal of the faith, and 
sleep in the sleep of peace; we beseech Thee, O Lord, to 
grant them, and all that rest in Christ, a place of refresh- 
ment, light, and peace, through the same Jesus Christ our 
Lord." But in the new reformed Missals it is altered thus, 
" Remember, Lord, Thy servants and handmaids N. and N. 
that have gone before us, &c." That they might not seem 
to pray for saints as well as others that were in purgatory. 
Which makes it very probable, that St. Cyril's Catechism 
has also been tampered with, and a clause put in, which 
speak of their praying to God by the intercession of 
Patriarchs, Prophets, Apostles, arid Martyrs : since the 
ancient Liturgies prayed for them as well as for all others. 
St.Chrysostom says expressly, " they offered for the Martyrs." 
And so it is in Lis Greek Liturgy, " We offer unto Thee this 
reasonable service for the faithful deceased, our forefathers, 
fathers. Patriarchs, Prophets, and Apostles, Evangelists, 
Martyrs, Confessors, religious persons, and every spirit 
perfected in the faith; but especially for our most holy, 
immaculate, most blessed Lady, the Mother of God, and 
ever Virgin Mary." Though, as Bp. Usher has observed, 
some of the Latin translators have also given a perverse 
turn to these words, rendering them thus, " We offer unto 
Thee this reasonable service for the faithful deceased, our 
forefathers and fathers, by the intercession of the 
Patriarchs, Prophets, ^Apostles, Martyrs, and all the Saints." 
For it sounded ill to the Latin ears to hear St. Chrysostom 
say, the ancient Church prayed for Saints and Martyrs. And 
yet he says it, not only in the forementioned places, but 
over and over again in others. 



OF ST. CVl'RIAX. ni 

we of the English Church are far nearer to the 
doctrine, principles, and practice of the Primitive 
Church, than the Church of Rome is : for Rome, 
apparently continuing the same custom, has con- 
nected it with principles and doctrines, together 
with which the precise custom of the ancients 
could not stand ; while we, not so obtrusively 
retaining the custom, yet have retained it in part; 
and for the doctrine and principles, maintain 
them still entire. For we expressly comme- 
morate the dead in the Eucharist ; and with 
regard to oblations for the blessed dead, for those, 
that is, for whom they were presented in St. 
Cyprian's time, I defy any one to point out 
a single principle or doctrine of the English 
Church which is opposed to it. On the contrary, 
the commemoration being made in the very 
prayers in which the oblation also is made, leads 
obviously to the conclusion, that the offering is 
for them, as w^ell as for the living mentioned with 
them : and so far as prayer for the dead is 
concerned, it is not only not condemned, but 
actually used by the Church over the grave of 
every departed brother, when she saith, " That 
it may please Thee of thy gracious goodness 
shortly to accomplish the number of thine elect, 
and to hasten thy kingdom ; that we, with all 
those that are departed in the true faith of thy 
holy Name, may have our perfect consummation 
and bliss, both in body and soul, in thy eternal 



62 LIFE AND TIMES 

and everlasting glory ; through Jesus Christ our 
Lord." Thus we have commemoration of the 
dead, and, if I be not greatly mistaken, an 
oblation for the dead, and prayer for the dead ; 
the only difference being, that v/e pray for none 
by name. 

Now when it is considered that we have so 
much of the primitive custom, and all the pri- 
mitive doctrine upon this question ; and that 
whatever of this custom we have not, we have 
been obliged to forego on account of the false 
doctrines which Rome had so connected with the 
custom, that there was, humanly speaking, no 
possibility of avoiding her error without modi- 
fying her usage : the blame of our partial defi- 
ciency, if such it be, will surely be laid on those 
who have robbed us of our right, by their 
perverse adherence to wrong p. 

A player, who had left off the exercise of his 
profession when he embraced Christianity, but 
still continued to teach it to others, gave occasion 
to the second of Cyprian's Epistles ; in which he 
gives the following answer to Eucratius, an eccle- 
siastic, who had asked, whether such a person ought 
to be admitted to communion. '^ I hold it to 
be inconsistent with sacred and evangelical dis- 
cipline, that the modesty and honour of the 
Church should be tainted with the contact of 

'' See on this subject Palmer's Origiues LihirgiccB, vol. ii. 
chap. iv. §. 10. p. 94 el seq. 2d Edition. 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 0*3 

such a person : for if it be contrary to the 
divine law for men to wear women's garments, 
how much more so must it be for them to 
imitate also the manners and gestures of the 
most abandoned of that sex : nor is the excuse 
to be heard, that he does not himself appear thus 
before the public, while he continues to teach 
others to do so ; for he can scarce be said to 
have retired from a profession^ who is training 
up to it many successors. If, however, he 
makes poverty a pretence, let him receive 
sufficient for his wants, so they be moderate, 
from your Church ; or if you are poor, he can be 
amply provided for here : and instead of leading 
others into the paths of perdition, he may him- 
self learn that which shall be for his everlasting 
peace." 

The licentiousness of the theatre St. Cyprian 
had already touched in his Epistle to Donatus. 
He observes, with evident truth, that while the 
stage was occupied with the representation of 
the most monstrous actions that had ever been 
perpetrated, and while the repetition of the 
scenic story was accompanied with loud ap- 
plauses, men were habituated to the forms of 
vice ; and began to fancy, that what was ap- 
plauded as done in the days from whence the 
fable was borrowed, might always be done, and 
that with honour. Thus crimes, which ought 
not so much as to enter into people's imagina- 



()4 LIFE AND TIMES 

tion, were not only not permitted to sink into 
oblivion, but were converted into examples. 
Other parts of the dramatic scene were direct 
stimulants to vice ; so that the woman who went 
thither virtuous, might return, in inclination at 
least, thoroughly depraved; while all was rendered 
worse, by the gods themselves being represented 
as criminals, in many cases, so that the people 
who are ready enough to follow bad example, 
and to find an excuse for sin, would be led to 
consecrate every perpetration of wickedness into 
religion. 

Without at all advocating the modern theatre, 
I must yet remark, that much of this reasoning 
of Cyprian is not applicable to our times ; 
though it was loudly called for by the state of 
things in his own. Women not being permitted 
to appear on the stage, all the female parts were 
sustained by men ; there was a degree of licen- 
tiousness and obscenity in the representations of 
many pieces, which would not now be tolerated 
on the stage of the most abandoned cities : and 
above all, the drama was so intimately linked 
with idolatry, that a Christian could not have 
taken his part in it, consistently with his duty to 
God, even though there were no other and more 
direct immorality, inseparable from the profession 
of a player*'. Still, however, it will be obvious 

^ The profession of an actor was always by the^ Primitive 
Church held to be inconsistent with true religion Jn the 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 65 

that the moral question and its solution is not 
now wholly different from that which Eucratius 
put to Cyprian, and Cyprian's answer. If the 
general tendency of the stage, as it is now con- 
ducted, be deleterious to the public principles 
and morals, we need not doubt on which side 
such an one as Cyprian should and would place 
the weight of his authority. 

Cyprian's third Epistle is to an aged Bishop, 
named Rogatian, who asked his advice as to the 
course which he ought to pursue with a Deacon, 
who had so forgotten his station and his duty, as 
to insult the person and despise the authority of 
Rogatian. In strict accordance with the prin- 
ciples of Church government and discipline in 
his age, Cyprian declared most explicitly, that it 
was wholly in Rogatian's power to proceed 
against the rebellious Deacon, either to degrada- 
tion, or to excommunication, as the case required : 
yet he recommended, first of all, the milder 
methods of persuasion and reproof; since it is 
better to overcome reproaches and injuries with 
patience and clemency, than to overwhelm the 
offender witii the weight of the Episcopal autho- 
rity. 

But the most painful delinquency against which 
Cyprian had now to exert his Episcopal authority 

African code of Canons (45) players are grouped with 
apostates. And the Apostolical Canons (14 al 18) deny 
Holy Orders to one who has married an actress. 

F 



66 LIFE AND TIMES 

forms the subject of his fourth Epistle. The ex- 
perience of the Church during two centuries of 
persecution had fully justified St. Paul's assertion, 
that for the present distress, celibacy was the 
better state. It was also recognized by the word 
of inspiration as an acceptable discipline and 
instance of self-denial. From these concurring 
circumstances and Scriptural declarations, a single 
life was by this time looked on as a state of 
greater privilege and sanctity, and many of each 
sex had voluntarily embraced that condition, not 
binding themselves by any vow, but simply 
purposing to themselves a religious celibate ^ 

' Such persons in Cyprian's days^, and till long after^ did 
not subject themselves to any particular regimen : this is 
clear from the directions and exhortations in Cyprian's book, 
de habilu virgimnn ; and also from the circumstances to 
which we are now directing our attention, which must have 
arisen out of the most unbounded licence in the voluntary 
celibates of both sexes, to follow their own inclination as to 
the place of their residence, and their general deportment. 
The difficulties also which Chrysostom notes {de sac. III. 
xvii.) in the sacerdotal government of virgins in the Church, 
arise out of the same liberty. The following words of 
Bingham {Orig. Ecc. VII. iv. 3.) will sufficiently indicate 
the progressive restraints which were laid upon professed 
virgins. Having observed that in Cyprian's days they were 
not even positively forbidden to marry, he proceeds : '' But 
in the following ages, the censures of the Church were 
inflicted on them. The Council of Ancyra |]Anno 314.] 
determined universally against all such as having professed 
virginity, afterward went against their profession, .that they 
should be subject to the same term of penance as digamists 
were used to be ; that is, a year or two, as we learn from 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 67 

From this condition, those who were already 
married were of course excluded : but for those 
there was a greater refinement of asceticism open, 
by a voluntary continence ; and to this some of 
them resorted. This discipline, like that of the 
voluntary celibates^ was neither scandalous, nor 
in itself otherwise than innocent : though it had 
too much the appearance of going beyond what 
was required by God, to seem wholly wise and 
safe. But out of it arose a most criminal practice ; 
for it seems to have suggested to those who had 
already professed celibacy, the dangerous ex- 
pedient of choosing one of the other sex, bound 
by the like vows, with whom they might form a 
kind of spiritual nuptials, still maintaining their 
chastity, though, in all things else, living as freely 
together as married persons ^ 

That there were unworthy motives at the 
bottom of such a course it would be difficult not 



one of the Canons of St. Basil. The Council of Chalcedon 
[^451] orders them to be excommunicated, if they married, 
but leaves the term of their penance to the Bishop's discretion. 
The Council of Valence p?^] in France is still more 
severe, forbidding them to be admitted immediately to 
penance ; and when they were admitted, unless they made 
full and reasonable satisfaction to God, their restoration to 

communion was still to be deferred " 

^ Non deesse qui Dei templa et post confessioiiem 
sanctificata et illustrata membra turpi et infami concubitu 
suo plus maculent, cubilia sua cum fceminis promiscua 
jungentes. Ep. vi. p. 12. see also Ep. Ixii. pp. 102 — 104^. 

f2 



68 LIFE AND TIMES 

to believe : it is however fair to suppose, that 
the delinquents were self-deceived. They had 
prevailed on themselves to believe, that they 
might thus, even more effectually than in any 
other w^ay, strengthen their religious character, 
by preserving their celibate, in the midst of such 
temptations : and there was something in the 
spiritual union which they did not conceal, not 
unapt to excite admiration, and to fill them with 
self-complacency. The world, however, refused 
to view the matter in this light ; and much 
scandal, as might be expected, ensued ^ Pom- 
ponius, then, a brother Bishop, wrote for St. 
Cyprian's advice, as to the course which he 
should pursue, and the manner in which he 
should treat those who had been guilty of this 
scandalous custom in his diocese ; one of whom 
it seems was a Deacon. Cyprian, after his usual 
manner, takes a decided view of the case, and 
does not for an instant temporize with the deceit- 
ful reasonings by which such a practice was 
excused. He declares at once, that the professed 
celibates with their agapetce had placed them- 
selves within the snares of the devil; and laments 
that many had already, as might be expected, 
fallen a sacrifice to his wiles : he recommends, 
that those who had offended in this matter, with- 

^ Quando etsi stuprum conscientiae eorum desit, hoc 
ipsum grande crimen est, quod illorum scandal o in aliorum 
ruinas exempla nascuntur. Ibid. 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 69 

out reference to the truth or falsehood of their 
assertions of purity, should undergo penance ; 
that they should then resume their state of pro- 
fessed celibacy, if they still thought it conducive 
to their Christian character ; but otherwise, that 
they should marry, since, as St. Paul says, it is 
better to marry than to burn. But if any refused 
to forego their scandalous custom, they were to 
be excommunicated, without hope of reconcili- 
ation. 

As for the Deacon who was among the number 
of the delinquents, he had been already excom- 
municated by Pomponius, whose judgment Cy- 
prian approves. 

This whole matter affords us a most useful 
general lesson, and an awful example of the 
deceitfulness of sin. It was under the pretence 
of a singular sanctity that the a-vveicraKTOL 
voluntarily placed themselves in a position so 
full of scandal to the Church in general, and of 
danger to themselves ; and many of them doubt- 
less, when they were on the verge of losing the 
very purity which they estimated so highly, were 
priding themselves on the constancy with which 
they resisted temptation, and maintained their 
Christian life. 

We are also forcibly reminded here, that God 
is the wisest dispenser of our duties ; not only 
when he is apparently rigid and severe, but also 
when he is so merciful to our infirmities, that 



70 LIFE AND TIMES 

men fancy they can advance in their obedience 
even beyond what he requires of them. Every 
step tovs^ards the extreme criminality of some at 
least of the avvelaaKTOL, was beyond the law of 
of God, though taken with an avowed intention 
of pleasing him ; and had this course of conduct 
stopped but one or two steps sooner, we might 
have been almost disposed to believe, that the 
voluntary yoke was good to be borne: in other 
words, that man was in this case wiser than 
God. But the principle of the mischief was in 
the voluntary exercise of the married, opposing 
as it did a plain precept of holy writ ; and 
it advanced still farther in the asceticism of the 
celibate, also contrary to the spirit of many of 
the sacred declarations. I need proceed no 
farther ; I will only observe, that we have still, 
in the Roman Church, a memorial before us of 
the truth of the remarks which I have now made : 
for though Rome has so far profited by the fall 
of the avveiaaKTOL, as to take her celibates under 
the peculiar protection of the Church, and to 
enforce a separate habitation for the two sexes, 
the whole system is scandalous and dangerous ; 
and she had certainly better revert to obedience 
to the word of God, than proceed to the organizing 
of human devices. We will not deny to Romanists 
the merit of a good intention, at least in a vast 
majority of instances ; neither surely can they 
deny, that some of the blackest stains that ever 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 71 

came upon any Church, or upon any body of 
men whatever, have proceeded from their system 
of celibacy. 

Thus far I had written, before an extraordinary 
attack upon the Church appeared, under the title 
of Ancient Christianity, The character and the 
writings of St. Cyprian are strangely distorted 
in this work ; and the case of the o-vvelaaKToc, 
with St. Cyprian's Tract on the attire of virgins, 
are made, by perversion, abundantly useful in 
supporting the slanderous representations which 
are wanted for the support of the argument, 
Mr. Taylor's system required, that the celibacy of 
persons of either sex should be the effect if not of 
actual, yet at least of moral, force : and so, with- 
out the shadow of proof, he speaks of the " rash 
and unwarrantable vow of perpetual celibacy, or 
virginity, taken or forced upon multitudes of 
young women, in some moment of artificial 
religious excitement"." To this representation 
we have simply to say, that it is false : and with- 
out it the whole scheme totters. 

The work of all others in which one would 
expect to find St. Cyprian labouring to produce an 
artificial religious excitement, which should force 
virgins to devote themselves to a perpetual 
celibate, is the tract above named. On the Attire 
of Virgins, — Nuns, My, Taylor explains it; though 
he ought to know, that nuns, in the sense in 

" Ancient Christianity, p. 72. 



72 LIFE AND TIMES 

which his reader will understand the word, had 
then no existence ; and though he is manifestly 
aware, that unless it be thus understood, his 
reasoning will lose half its force. This is dis- 
honest, and should have been avoided by one 
who speaks in this very same page of a similar 
sophism with becoming reprobation : '' How 
much," he exclaims, " turns often upon an insen- 
sible substitution of a technical, for the general 
and genuine sense of an ethical, term ^ !" How 
much, we may retort, here turns on the artful sub- 
stitution of a name, which has been appropriated 
to an institute unknown in Cyprian's time, and 
associated in our minds with a large catalogue of 
evil, which had no place in the world until ages 
after, for a simple term, sufficiently expressing its 
object, and not adapted to suggest suspicions, and 
opprobrious thoughts ! 

Then, again, there is the accomplished manage- 
ment by which a few isolated passages are made 
to stand as the representatives of the whole 
Tract, and of the character of all St. Cyprian's 
writings. To a mind at all versed with the sub- 
ject, and imbued with the necessity of giving at 
least some meaning to the words of our Lord and 
of St. Paul on the subject of a life of religious 
celibacy, even the passages adduced, as they stand 
in their isolated form, will cause no unfavourable 
impressions. But when it is remembered, that 
"^ Page 75, 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 73 

the treating of any particular virtue almost 
necessarily leads to the giving to that virtue an 
undue preference at the time ; — the balance 
being justly struck not on a view of a particular 
Tract or Homily, but of the whole series of 
moral discourses of an author or an age ; 
when it is remembered, that St. Cyprian is 
there expressly speaking of a religious celibacy, 
and there only in all his works, instead of almost 
every where, as a careless reader of '' Ancient 
Christianity" would suppose ; and when it is 
remembered, that even that work alone does 
really stand free from the blame which Mr. Taylor 
attaches to it, if it be read as a whole ; when all 
this is remembered, the argument of '' Ancient 
Christianity" will gain but little from the Tract 
De Hahitu Virginum, 

And if we were to judge of the whole Church, 
or of any portion of it, by the invectives which 
are pronounced against certain vices in certain 
members of it, what would the indignant remon- 
strances of Bishop Latimer lead us to suppose 
was the state of England in his day : — of the 
Protestant Court of Edward VI., and of the 
reformed Church of our fathers ? 

And, if the characters of the very preachers 
against iniquity were always to be involved in 
the stain of which they speak ; (and unless it be on 
that principle, I know not whence the stigma falls 
upon those names which Mr. Taylor delights to 



74 LIFE AND TIMES 

mention ;) where again would be the character of 
every bold reprover of vice in every age ? 

And what can be a more satisfactory proof of 
the pmity of the Christian Church, as a society, 
from any particular vice, than the indignant 
reprobation of that vice by all who hint at it, and 
its denunciation by several Councils ^ ? Perhaps 
it may signify little to Mr. Taylor, that there is 
in the Apostles' Creed such an Article as " the 
HOLY Catholic Church ;" but we confess that we 
should scarce prove its holiness very satisfactorily, 
if we found in all its safeguards of virtue, and all 
its repudiation of vice, nothing but the symptoms 
of leprosy, or the indications of a moral plague. 

If Mr. Taylor himself had not zealously 
laboured to disabuse us of such an opinion, we 
should have been in danger of taking his book for 
the work of a man half learned at most, who had 
heaped together by the use of indexes all the 
passages which seemed to serve his impure pur- 
pose, by some mention at the very least of 
impurity, though to condemn it : and that with- 
out reading a single entire page, still less a single 
entire treatise, he had concluded, that all was 
alike impure, or capable of easy misrepresent- 
ation. 



y The learned reader may turn to Dod well's third Cyprianic 
Dissertation, for much learning on the whole of this matter ; 
and for the voice of Fathers and Councils, to sect. 3. of that 
Dissertation. 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 75 

But this at least is certain. That Mr. Taylor 
has commenced the study of the Fathers with a 
sinister purpose, with a mind early infected with 
the spirit of dissent, at an age when it was too 
late for him to acquire that tact, without which 
the theological, and even the profane literature of 
an age, can never be understood and appreciated. 
Such being his object, and such his qualifications 
for the task, the irreverent and the impure will 
revel in his pages, if they be unlearned ; but all 
the really learned will see through his artifice or 
imperfect information, whichever it may be : and 
the Church of God, which has withstood the 
attacks of moral persecution from many a 
stronger hand, will weep as she receives the 
blow, not at her own discomfiture, but at the 
impiety of her son. 



CHAPTER IV. 



revolutions in the roman state. their influence on 

the condition of the church. edicts of decius. 

the persecution commences. — some retire from 

carthage ; among whom st. cyprian himself. 

Cyprian's reasons for retiring. — his care of the 
church while absent. his letter to the con- 
fessors. —the insinuations of the roman clergy 

AGAINST CYPRIAN : AND CYPRIAN's ANSWER TO THEIR 

EPISTLE. THE PROGRESS OF THE PERSECUTION. THE 

SUFFERINGS OF MAPPALICUS, AND OTHER CONFESSORS 
AND MARTYRS. 



While St. Cyprian was engaged in restoring 
that discipline- which a long peace had relaxed, 
the Roman state was convulsed by a rapid 
succession of rebellions. Within the space of 
six months the two Philips were slain ; a traitor, 
who had assumed the imperial name, expiated 
his treason with his blood ; and the imperial 
dignity descended on one no better entitled to it 
than the rebel whom he had chastised. Early in 
the summer of the year 249 a rebellion broke out 
among the legions of Moesia, who invested an 



LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CYPRIAN. 77 

inferior officer named Marinas with the purple. 
Decius marched against the upstart, who was 
soon after murdered : and Decius, who left Rome 
the general of Philip, returned in the imperial 
robes, to hurl his former master from the throne. 
The elder Philip met the traitor with an army of 
superior numbers, but the appeal to arms was 
unsuccessful : he was routed, and in a few days 
slain at Verona ; and soon after, his son and 
associate in the empire, the younger Philip, 
was murdered at Rome by the praetorian guard. 
This was in August : in September, Decius pro- 
claimed himself emperor, throwing off all pretences 
of allegiance, which he had hitherto affected to 
maintain; and in October he was received at Rome 
with the acclamations of the people and senate. 

To the citizens of Rome it was comparatively 
unimportant whether Philip, or Marinus, or 
Decius, reigned ; but to the Christians through- 
out the empire it was far otherwise. These 
revolutions were the signal of a bitter persecu- 
tion. Philip had always been favourable to 
Christianity, and Eusebius tells us, that it was 
even reported by some that he was a Christian : 
but Decius was warmly attached to the super- 
stitions of his forefathers ; was alarmed possibly 
at the number of Christians who might be 
expected to resent the death of Philip, and 
certainly was not the more kindly disposed 
towards Christians, for Philip's encouragement 



78 LIFE AND TIMES 

of the Church. The reign of Decius com- 
menced, therefore, with an edict against the 
Christians, directed to the magistrates through- 
out the empire; in which he commanded that 
the Christians should be driven to apostacy, 
and to the worship of the heathen deities, by 
every motive of fear and force ; threatening the 
infliction of severe penalties, and even tortures, 
upon the magistrates themselves, if they should 
neglect to execute this decree in all its rigour. 
The officers in the several provinces, thus stimu- 
lated to a cruel persecution, immediately entered 
upon their odious charge ; and seemed to make 
it an occasion of increasing their ingenuity, as 
well as cruelty, in the arts and infliction of 
torture. Many were thrown into prison, many 
were scourged, and new and strange instruments 
of torture were exhibited, to intimidate the 
appointed victims ; and in many instances death 
was the only favour which the judge conferred 
on the trembling and agonized confessor and 
martyr. 

The letters of Dionysius of Alexandria, pre- 
served by Eusebius, give some account of the 
persecution which followed on this edict in 
Egypt ; though he tells us at the same time, that 
a popular fury, which often ended in horrid 
violence and murder, had already been excited 
against the Christians of Alexandria by a poet, 
who had employed his art in upholding the 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 79 

ancient superstitions, and exciting his fellow- 
citizens against the Christians. This letter of 
Dionysius, together with the Epistle of St. 
Cyprian, to which we shall presently refer, 
affords a sufficiently correct view of what was 
passing throughout Christendom ; nor shall we 
find any lack of such descriptions of particular 
cases of suffering and constancy, as may give to 
the general history the necessary, though in this 
case painful, interest of individual and personal 
details. 

The first step which was taken on the publica- 
tion of the edict of Decius seems to have been, 
the appointing a day on which all who were 
accused or suspected of being Christians should 
be required to renounce their faith, and sacrifice 
to the heathen gods. Meanwhile they were 
suffered to remain unmolested in possession of 
their own property, and without any farther 
sacrifice of their rights, as subjects and citizens. 
There was sufficient leniency here towards the 
persons of the brethren, but a cruel policy against 
the faith of the Church; for there was no 
more likely method than this to make apostates. 
The measure of suffering which he might have 
to expect on the appointed day, was yet un- 
known to the Christian ; and he had no ground 
to look for any thing short of the most cruel 
torments and a lingering death. Space was 
given to brood upon this danger ; and the 



80 LIFE AND TIMES 

Church had not been composed of men, if there 
had not been found many to shrink from torture 
and death by a denial of their holy faith ; espe- 
cially since this, too, was made easy to them by 
many devices^ which ensured to the apostates the 
safety, without the public exposure, of their re- 
cusancy. 

Many, in express obedience to the precept of 
our blessed Lord himself, who taught his disciples, 
when persecuted in one city to flee to another, 
retired from Carthage, leaving their possessions 
as the price of their life ; and perhaps, (since 
some of them doubtless fled from their distrust of 
their own fortitude,) as a price of their Christianity 
also. These certainly did well, and reasoned 
justly, and received a reward in proportion to 
their integrity and faith ; although, as we shall 
find hereafter, they avoided not the sneers and 
reproof of their more courageous brethren. '' Let 
no one, my beloved brethren," says ^ Cyprian, in 
his Treatise on the Lapsed, ^^ let no one derogate 
from the honours of those who thus maintained 
their integrity, nor cast any reproach upon their 
confession. When the appointed day had passed, 
whoever had not yet denied himself to be a 
Christian, had in fact confessed the faith of 
Christianity. The first title to the crown be- 
longs indeed to those who confess their Lord in 
the hands of the heathen; but to reserve one's self 
in the faith and service of the Lord, by a cautious 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 81 

retreat^ is only second to that highest point of 
glory. The first is a public confession, the latter 
is a private confession. The first is a conquest 
over the judge of this world ; the latter is the 
maintaining a pure conscience, and integrity of 
heart, content with the testimony of God alone. 
On the one hand is the greater and more cheerful 
endurance ; on the other a wiser and safer 
caution. One man is found ready, when the 
hour of suffering approaches ; but another is 
perhaps only reserved for a future trial, having 
already sacrificed his fortune, that he might not 
abjure the faith '"." 

Those who fled of course suffered proscription, 
and confiscation of goods ; w^hile those w^ho re- 
mained, but neither sacrificed to heathen gods, 
nor otherwise denied their faith, were banished, 
or cast into prison, there to await the more 
vigorous proceedings of the proconsul, when he 
should arrive at his province. St. Cyprian him- 
self was among those who avoided persecution 
by an early retreat : not, however, before he had 
seen ample indications, that against him especially, 
as the Bishop of the Church, the fury of the 
heathens would be excited ; not before the circus 
and the amphitheatre had again and again echoed 
the voices of the people, calling out that he 
should be cast to the lions ; and not before 
(which is far the most important) he had become 
* De Lapsis, p. 182. 
G 



82 LIFE AND TIMES 

fully convinced by the best consideration, and, as 
he himself tells us, by a warning also from heaven, 
that he should thus be fulfilling his duty to God 
and his Church more perfectly. Under these 
circumstances it was, that he followed the precept 
of the Lord, as he himself assures the Roman 
Clergy''; and at the first outbreak of popular 
fury, when the cries of the people were swelled 
with loud threatenings against him, consulting 
not so much his own safety, as the welfare of the 
flock committed to his charge, he made his 
retreat ; lest by his inopportune and illjudged 
presence, the commotion already so violent, 
should be still more increased ^ On this retreat 
Caecilius Cyprian was proscribed by name, and his 
estate confiscated*'. 

We know not the place of St. Cyprian's first 
retreat, nor the names of any of his companions, 
except Victor his Deacon : he tells us, however, 
incidentally, that he had not retired from Car- 
thage, without leaving so much of his property, as 
he was enabled to appropriate, for the benefit of 

^ Ep. xiv. 

*^ St. Cyprian is not the only person who has avoided 
persecution by flight under the like circumstances. " His 
contemporaries, Dionysius of Alexandria, and Gregory of 
Neocaesarea, had fled also ; as had Poly carp before them, and 
Athanasius after them." See chap, xii. of '' The Church of 
the Fathers;" in which is an admirable view of the prin- 
ciples of the Church of Christ on this subject. 

■^ Ep. Ixix. 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 83 

the poor of his diocese ; committing it^ for that 
purpose^ to the Presbyter Rogatian : and we have 
presently sufficient indications, that if absent in 
body, he was yet in spirit present with his flock ; 
sparing neither exertion, nor prayers, nor eucha- 
ristic commemorations, nor frequent directions, 
encouragements, and reproofs, to preserve them 
in the true faith of Christ, and within the bonds 
of Apostolical order. 

He was careful, therefore, through the medium 
of Tertullus % of whom he speaks with much 
aflPection, to receive constant intelligence from 
Carthage ; and he made up for his absence, as 
much as possible, by his frequent letters to the 
Clergy, and to the people of his Church. He 
begins, in Epistle V. with the necessary pro- 
visions for maintaining discipline in his absence. 
Having acknowledged the good providence of 
God in his present security, he exhorts his Clergy 
to give the greater diligence to the affairs of the 
Church: since his part in them had now devolved 
on their management ; and since the state of 
Carthage, and his own office, more obnoxious to 
popular vengeance, permitted not his return. 
With prudence, and a total absence of all fanati- 
cism, he exhorts them to a proper care to restore 
all things to peace and quiet, if it were possible ; 
and he suggests a present rule of conduct to this 
end, that the Presbyters, whose office it was to 
^ Ep. xxxvii. p. 50. 

g2 



84 LIFE AND TIMES 

visit the confessors in their prisons, should not 
crowd about them in too great numbers ; but 
that they should go separately, each attended 
with his single Deacon ; that the attention of the 
heathen might not be arrested, nor their suspi- 
cions needlessly excited ; that the Priests might 
not be debarred the exercise of their duty in 
administering the Holy Eucharist to their im- 
prisoned brethren, nor they be deprived of the 
privileges of communion : '' for we ought," says 
he, '^ as servants of God, to adapt ourselves to 
the present times, meekly and humbly; to concert 
means of quiet, and to have respect even to the 
feelings of the people." 

The same real wisdom is manifest in all his 
letters under these trying circumstances. In his 
seventh Epistle, for instance, he writes to his 
Clergy, '' I salute you, dearest brethren, being 
through God's blessing in safety ; and I would 
that I might soon obtain permission from heaven, 
and find fitting occasion to return to you, both 
to your joy and my own. For what would both 
my pleasure and spiritual interest point out as 
the best place for me, but that in which the 
providence of God made me a Christian. But 
however trying it may be to remain still separated 
from you, it is my first duty to promote the 
peace of the community, and to remain here ; 
lest my return should excite the rage and malice 
of the gentiles, and I, who ought to consult 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 85 

peace in all that I do, should become the chief 
occasion of violence." In this letter, St. Cyprian 
makes mention of a supply out of his own patri- 
mony, which he had left behind him for the use 
of the pensioners of the Church ; and he men- 
tions a farther supply which he thus sent by his 
Acolythe Naricus ; and makes suitable arrange- 
ments for its distribution. 

St. Cyprian's sixth Epistle^ is addressed to 
Sergius, Rogatianus, and the other confessors in 
prison ; to those, that is, who had refused 
obedience to the edict of Decius, before the 
magistrates of Carthage ; and were remitted 
to confinement until the arrival of the Proconsul 
with higher powers. The terms of high praise 
and of respect in which he addresses these 
sufferers for the name of Christ, may prepare us 
to hear of their future elation, when we consider 
how very difficult it is for men to bear the praise 
of their fellow-creatures, without vanity and pre- 
sumption : yet from Cyprian, whose adherence to 
the cause of Christ was of a different complexion, 
and though equally sincere, yet wanting in the 
splendour of a public confession, and continued 
sufferings before the eyes of the people, those 
expressions of deep reverence come with a pecu- 
liarly good grace. " Would," says he, '' that 
the present state of affairs would permit me 
to visit you in person : for what could now fill 
« Ep. Ixxxi, in the Benedictine Edition. 



86 LIFE AND TIMES 

me with greater joy, than to embrace you again, 
and to receive the pressure of those arms, which 
have retained their purity amid the temptations 
to idolatry, and still held fast the faith of our 
Lord ? What so delightful, what so ennobling, 
as to touch those lips which have uttered a 
glorious confession : and to be seen by those eyes, 
which have looked down upon this world, and 
shewn themselves worthy of the beatific vision ? 
But since so great a privilege is denied me, 
I send these letters to you in my place ; at 
the same time congratulating you, and exhorting 
you to farther perseverance, that you may stand 
fast in your professions, and persist in your 
heavenly path, until you receive the crown of 
glory ; having that God for your defender and 
keeper, who saith, Lo ! I am with you akoays, 
even unto the end of the world, O blessed prison, 
which your presence has illuminated ! O blessed 
dungeon, which is but as the next step to heaven! 
O darkness more splendid than the sun itself, so 
long as it contains living temples of our God, 
even your bodies sanctified by a divine confession! 
Now you need no other occupation than to 
meditate on those divine precepts and loving 
commands, with which the Holy Spirit has 
continued to animate you to the endurance of 
suffering. Think not then of death, but of 
immortality ; think not of temporary torment, 
but of eternal glory ; since it is written. Precious 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 87 

in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints : 
and again ; A broken spirit is a sacrifice to God, 
a broken and a contrite heart God doth not despise: 
and again ; where holy writ speaks of those 
divine torments which consecrate the martyrs of 
God, and sanctify them by the very endurance of 
suffering : ' Though they be punished in the 
sight of men, yet is their hope full of immor- 
tality. And having been a little chastised, they 
shall be greatly rewarded: for God proved them, 
and found them worthy for himself. As gold in 
the fire hath he tried them, and received them as 
a burnt-offering. And in the time of their 
visitation they shall shine, and run to and fro 
like sparks among the stubble. They shall judge 
the nations and have dominion over the people, 
and their Lord shall reign for ever ^' " 

Cyprian proceeds to some appropriate exhort- 
ations ; and we learn from his letter, that women 
and children were not free from this persecution, 
nor wanting in that divine grace, which enabled 
them to witness a good confession. He mentions 
with especial praise Rogatian and Felicissimus, 
two ecclesiastics, who had borne the first outrage 
of heathen violence, preparing as it were for 
their brethren mansions in the prison house, and 
a way to heaven through violence and death : 
and he does not conclude without a prayer, that 
those whom God had made confessors, He would 
^ Wisdom iii. 4 — 8. 



88 LIFE AND TIMES 

still continue to bless, until their first steps to 
glory should be consummated with the martyrs' 
crown. 

While St. Cyprian was thus earnestly engaged 
in fulfilling his duty towards his flock, though 
absent, reports had gone abroad to his dis- 
advantage ; and at Rome he had been repre- 
sented rather as a renegade, than as a faithful 
but prudent man, acting himself upon those high 
principles of duty, which he openly recommended 
to others in the like case. 

It seems doubtful whether the Roman Clergy 
had heard of Cyprian's retreat from his enemies ; 
or whether they had heard it only imperfectly, 
and without any of the peculiar circumstances 
which forced the Bishop to a temporary retreat 
for the benefit of his people. At any rate, they 
had not yet been told, for there had not been 
time for this, of that great diligence in his 
charge which, as they themselves afterwards 
confessed, made him as it were present with 
his flock, though in person he was absent from 
them. Looking upon Carthage, therefore, as a 
deserted Church, and being themselves deprived 
of their Bishop by the martyrdom of Fabian, 
they wrote to Carthage a letter, in which they 
offered many suggestions, in harmony with the 
directions which Cyprian had already given, for 
the better government of the Church ; and in 
which they glanced somewhat severely at the 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 89 

conduct of the absent Bishop. There can be 
little advantage in transcribing strictures which 
evidently took their rise from a false report, or 
at least a misapprehension : one passage, however, 
I cannot refrain from copying, (though it is not 
quite free from insinuations against St. Cyprian,) 
since it gives us a fair description of the Church 
of Rome at that time. '' We do not," say the 
clergy of Rome to their brethren at Carthage, 
" send you bare exhortations, but they are en- 
forced, as you may easily learn from those who 
have seen our state, by our example. By God's 
grace we have done, and yet do, according to 
our precepts, notwithstanding the extreme peril 
in which we stand ; for we have the fear of God, 
and eternal torments, rather than man's anger, 
and a short suffering, before our eyes ; and thus 
encouraged, we leave not the brethren forsaken, 
but continually warn them to constancy in the 
faith, and preparation to meet the Lord. Thus 
we have even recalled some to their duty, who 
were going up to the capitol by restraint, to offer 
sacrifice, or openly to apostatize. Our Church 
stands firm ; though some indeed have fallen, 
either from the extremity of terror, or because 
they w^ere remarkable for their station, and the 
more exposed to the fear of man : whom, how- 
ever, even in their separation from us, we do not 
utterly abandon ; but we exhort them to re- 
pentance, that they may obtain pardon from 



90 LIFE AND TIMES 

Him who can alone bestow it ; lest being 
utterly forsaken by us, they should become 
worses." 

Crementius, the Subdeacon, who was the 
messenger of the Roman Clergy to Carthage, 
carried also a letter to St. Cyprian, giving an 
account of the martyrdom of Fabian. This 
letter was so expressed, as to convey a tacit 
reproof to Cyprian for his retreat. I shall give 
Cyprian's answer entire *". 

" Cyprian to his brethren the Presbyters and 
Deacons of Rome, Health ! When there was an 
uncertain rumour, dearest brethren, among us, 
of the departure of that excellent man my col- 
league', and we were doubtful what to think, I 
received your letters at the hands of Crementius 
the Subdeacon, by which 1 was fully informed of 
his glorious exit ; and I was exceedingly rejoiced, 
that the honour of its close was worthy of the 
integrity of his administration. I congratulate 
you very highly, because you perpetuate his 
memory in so illustrious a testimony ; so that 
through you I am acquainted with the splendid 
reputation of your Bishop, and an example of 
faith and virtue is thus afforded me. For the 
fall of a Bishop is not more pernicious as an 
example of defection, than his fidelity is useful 

* Ep. ii. 
•• Ep. iii. 
i Fabian, Bishop of Rome. 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 91 

and salutary for the imitation of his brethren. 
I have also read another letter, in which it is not 
clearly expressed either by whom or to whom it 
w^as written ; and since both its character and 
contents, and the paper itself, raised a doubt in me, 
whether it had not been mutilated or corrupted, 
I have sent back to you the identical letter, 
that you may yourselves discover whether it is 
the same which you sent by Crementius the 
Subdeacon : for it is a matter of the utmost 
importance, if the integrity of the letters of the 
Clergy is rendered questionable by deception 
or fraud. That I may know this, therefore, 
examine carefully, whether the writing and 
subscription be yours, and return to me the true 
account of the matter. I wish you, dearest 
brethren, continued health." 

This mention of the death of Fabian, Bishop 
of Rome, opens to us an altered view of the 
present persecution. It was before observed, 
that the Christians were not, generally at least, 
immediately put to death ; but that some days 
were allowed for them to determine whether 
they would sacrifice their rights as subjects, or 
their religion ; and that those who confessed 
Christ at the expiration of that term, were then 
banished, or committed to prison, until the 
Proconsul of each province should arrive, to 
enforce a more rigorous sentence. But still 
death was the ultimate sanction of the imperial 



92 LIFE AND TIMES 

edicts : and in Rome, where they were first 
published, would the interval soonest expire 
between their mildest and their most severe 
execution. Accordingly, Fabian first fell a 
sacrifice to the inhuman edict of Decius : 
Alexander Bishop of Jerusalem, and Babylas of 
Antioch, succeeded in due time ; and the per- 
secution being directed more especially against 
the Bishops of the several Churches, as St. 
Cyprian himself assures us, the Prelates of 
various Churches received the crown of martyr- 
dom ; while others, among whom were Gregory 
Thaumaturgus and Dionysius Alexandrinus, 
sought security, as Cyprian did, in a temporary 
retreat ; the latter Prelate, as well as Cyprian, 
pleading an express revelation from heaven as 
his warrant . 

Fabian, who had filled the Roman see fourteen 
years, received his crown on the twentieth of 
January, in the year of grace 250. Soon after, 
Moyses and Maximus, of whom we shall hear 
more presently, and Nicostratus a Deacon, were 
cast into prison ; and Celerinus, of a family of 
martyrs^, was summoned before Decius, and 

^ EusEBius, vi. 40. 

' " Avia ejus Celerina jam pridem martyrio coronata est: 
item patruus ejus et avunculus Laurentius et Egriatius, in 
castris et ipsi quondam seecularibus militantes, sed veri et 
spiritales Dei milites, dum diabolum Christi confessione 
prosternunt, palmas a Domino et coronas illustri passione 
meruerunt." Ep. xxxiv. 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 93 

after many torments was imprisoned nineteen 
days. By the time that a report of these things 
had reached Carthage, the persecution had as- 
sumed there also the same violent form. The 
Proconsul arrived at Carthage prohably about 
the beginning of April, nearly at the same time 
at which Crementius came from Rome, with 
letters to Cyprian, and to the Clergy at 
Carthage. Those who were already imprisoned 
were treated with greater rigour : they were 
macerated with hunger and thirst, and thus 
prepared to experience the most savage tortures, 
or death itself. A general view of this stage of 
the persecution may be collected from St. 
Cyprian's Epistles, written at this time, which 
will also afford us some instances of individual 
suffering and constancy. I shall transcribe the 
first of his Epistles (No. X.) to the martyrs and 
confessors on this occasion, as affording not only 
a description of the sufferings of the Christians 
of these times ; but also an example of the 
manner in which their Bishop fulfilled his part 
as a ruler of the flock, and as their friend and 
counsellor in all spiritual matters. 

" Cyprian to the martyrs and confessors, con- 
tinued health in Christ our Lord, and in God the 
Father. 

'' I am exceeding glad, and heartily congra- 
tulate you, brethren, most blessed in your great 
endurance, when I hear of your faith and courage. 



94 LIFE AND TIMES 

in which your Mother the Church triumphs. 
Indeed she triumphed before, when a judicial 
sentence drove the confessors of Christ into exile, 
without shaking their constancy. But your pre- 
sent confession is as much more glorious and 
honourable than that, as the sufferings have been 
greater, through which it has been maintained. 
The combat has been greater, and greater has 
been the glory of the combatants. You have 
not been deterred from the contest, but you have 
been rather the more excited to the battle, by the 
prospect of torture : and you have returned, firm 
and undaunted, with an unshaken devotion, to 
the struggles of the hottest engagement. Some 
of you, I hear, have already been crowned ; some 
are pressing towards the crown of victory, and 
stand ready to grasp it ; and all the glorious 
band, upon whom the dungeon has closed, are 
animated with an equal and mutual ardour to 
carry on the contest. This is as it ought to be 
with the soldiers of Christ in the army of the 
saints ; that effeminacy may not enervate, that 
threats may not terrify, that racks and tortures 
may not move the integrity and stability of their 
faith : since He is greater who is in us, than 
he who is in the world ; and no earthly infliction 
has greater power to cast us down, than the 
Divine help has to support us. Of this we have 
the proof before our eyes, in the glorious contest 
of those of our brethren, who were the leaders in 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 95 

this conquest of tortures ; and afforded an 
example of constancy and faith, while they 
rushed again and again on the battle, until 
the battle was overcome. In what words shall I 
proclaim your praises, O brethren, most invinci- 
ble ! With what device of the herald shall I 
blazon the strength of your fortitude, the endur- 
ance of your faith ! You have borne the most 
exquisite tortures, even to the consummation of 
your glory ; nor have you yielded to torment, 
but rather torment has yielded to you. Your 
martyrdom has crowned those sufferings, to which 
your tortures refused to put an end. The 
severity of infliction was thus continued, not 
to the overthrow of a dauntless faith, but that it 
might transport men more rapidly to their Lord. 
The spectators wondering at the celestial contest, 
the contest of God, the spiritual contest, the 
battle of Christ, saw his servants standing, with 
a determined voice, with a mind untainted, with 
heavenly virtue ; without the arms of this world, 
indeed, but strong in the panoply of faith. The 
tortured stood more unmoved than their tor- 
turers ; and the crushed and lacerated limbs 
overcame the instruments of cruelty. The fierce 
and often repeated lash could not overcome their 
invincible faith, although their very vitals were 
laid open with repeated stripes, and the frequent 
blow fell not on the body, but on the wounds 
of the servants of God. The effusion of blood 



96 LIFE AND TIMES 

might have extinguished the flames of perse- 
cution^ might have assuaged the very fires of hell 
with its glorious stream. O how noble was that 
spectacle ! In the eyes of the Lord how sublime ! 
How great, how acceptable in the sight of God, 
that fulfilment of the oath, that pledge of the 
devotion of his soldiers ! since it is written in the 
Psalms, the Holy Spirit speaking also to us. 
Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death 
of his saints. This is indeed a precious death, 
which has purchased immortality ; which has 
received the crown as the consummation of 
virtue. How did Christ then rejoice ! How 
willingly did he fight and conquer in such 
servants of his ; confirming their constancy, and 
giving to all those who believed in him according 
to their faith ! He was present, as if the contest 
were His own : He strengthened, encouraged, 
and animated those who fought for Him, and for 
the honour of His name : and He who once 
conquered death for us, continues to conquer 
death in us. When they shall deliver you up, 
says he, think not what ye shall say; for in that 
hour it shall he given you what ye shall say: for it 
is not ye who speak, but the Spirit of your Father 
who speaketh in you. The present combat 
afforded an evidence of this truth. A word full 
of the Holy Spirit broke from the mouth of the 
most blessed martyr Mappalicus, when he ex- 
claimed, in the midst of his tortures, to the 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 97 

Proconsul, To-morrow shall you see a struggle 
indeed! And what he said with the witness of a 
courageous faith-, the Lord himself fulfilled. The 
heavenly struggle was seen ; and the servant of 
God received his crown in the height of the anti- 
cipated contest This is the struggle which 

the Apostle Paul describes, in which we ought to 
run so as to obtain the crown of glory : Know ye 
not, says he, tliat they which run in a race run all, 
hut one receweth the p'lze ? So run, that ye may 
obtain. And every man that striveth for the 
mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do 
it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incor- 
ruptible. Again, describing his own contest, and 
in immediate anticipation of being offered up, he 
says. For I am now ready to be offered, and the 
time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a 
good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept 
the faith : henceforth there is laid up for me a 
crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righ- 
teous Judge, shall give me at that day : and not to 
me only, but unto all them also that love his 
appearing. 

" This struggle, therefore, appointed by the 
Lord, undergone by Apostles, Mappalicus, in his 
own name and in the name of his companions, 
promised that the Proconsul should see. Nor 
did he disappoint the expectation that he had 
excited : he exhibited the contest he had pro 
mised ; he bore off the palm which he deserved. 

H 



98 LIFE AND TIMES 

Let me, then, exhort those of you who remain to 
follow that most glorious martyr, and the rest 
w^ho shared in his engagement ; who were patient 
in tribulation, who were victorious over the rack, 
and stood like soldiers and comrades unbroken 
in faith. That those whom the bond of one 
confession and the walls of the dungeon have 
already associated, may also be associated in the 
consummation of virtue and the heavenly crown. 
That you may dry, by your joy, those tears of 
your Mother the Church, which she sheds over 
the fall and ruin of many; and that you may 
confirm those, who are yet unshaken, by your 
example of endurance. When your turn shall 
arrive, and you too shall be called to the fight, 
quit yourselves valiantly, and endure with con- 
stancy ; well assured that you fight under the 
eyes of the Lord, who is present with you, and 
that you march to glory through the confession 
of his name. He is not such a master as to 
look on his servants from afar; but Hr himself 
struggles together with them ; with them He 
advances to the conflict : He himself, in the 
successful issue, both bestows and receives a 
crown. 

" If, however, the Lord should grant peace to 
the Church, before your day of conflict arrive, 
still yours is the unshaken purpose, and yours a 
conscious deserving of glory. Nor let any of 
you be moved to envy by the apparent superiority 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 99 

of those who have endured torments before you, 
and arrived by a glorious journey to the Lord, 
having trampled a conquered world under their 
feet. The Lord is a discerner of the hearts and 
the reins ; he sees through our secret thoughts, 
and looks into our inmost heart. The testimony of 
Him alone, who is to award it, will be sufficient 
to secure you the crown. Either condition, 
therefore, dearest brethren, is alike noble and 
illustrious : it is safer to hasten to the Lord fresh 
from the victory; it is more joyous, having served 
with honour, to receive for a while the praises of 
the Church. O how blessed is our Church be- 
come ; bright with the approval of God, illus- 
trious with the glorious blood of her martyrs. 
She was already white with the works of her 
sons ; now she is red with the blood of martyrs : 
neither the lily nor the rose is wanting in her 
coronal. Now let each one of you contend for 
the full possession of either dignity: let him 
receive either a white crown for his works, or a 
purple crown for his passion. Peace and war 
have their garlands alike in the heavenly camp, 
with which the soldier of Christ may be glori- 
ously crowned. 

'' Brethren, most courageous and most blessed, 
I wish you health in the Lord : continue to hold 
me in your remembrance. Fare ye well." 

The history of a persecution is but an aggre- 
gate of the records of sufferings inflicted on 

H 2 



100 LIFE AND TIMES 

separate individuals. I shall therefore best finish 
this part of the subject^ by collecting from the 
works of Cyprian some other accounts similar to 
that of Mappalicus in the foregoing letter. 

Celerinus'", descended from a family of martyrs, 
both on his father's and his mother's side, was 
the first who earned the glorious title of a con- 
fessor, animating his brethren by his example, 
and teaching them victory by his successful en- 
durance. Yet, as Cyprian tells us, his struggle 
was not short nor light ; but he triumphed by a 
miraculous constancy and courage : nineteen days 
and nights was he confined and tortured ; but 
his body only was enchained, while his soul re- 
mained free and unshackled. His body was 
emaciated by hunger and thirst ; but God kept 
his soul alive in faith and virtue, with spiritual 
food. While stretched upon the rack, he was 
stronger than his torturers ; while in prison, 
greater than they who imprisoned him; prostrate 
so far as his body was concerned, he was more 
lofty than they who stood over him; in his bonds 
he was more unfettered than they who bound 
him ; receiving his sentence more dignified than 
his judges. The marks of his wounds remained 
conspicuous in his glorious body ; and his ema- 
ciated limbs long bore witness of his suffering. 
Such patient endurance received the honourable 
testimony even of the persecutor himself, and is 
"" Ep. xxxiv. 



(TF ST. CYPRIAN. 101 

worthy to stand foremost among the records of 
this season of affliction patiently endured to the 
glory of God, and the honour of the Church. 

Aurelius also receives an honourable testimony 
from St. Cyprian, as one who had twice suffered 
for the faith ; first of all, indeed, being banished 
only, but afterwards tortured, and victorious on 
both occasions. It should seem that the torture 
was often inflicted, and before several magistrates, 
since Cyprian tells us, that as often as the adver- 
sary would challenge the servant of God, so often 
was he found prompt and courageous, so often 
did he fight and conquer. To have suffered in 
banishment under the eyes of a few was little : 
he was reserved to display a greater endurance 
in the forum itself, that he might be victorious 
over the proconsul, as he had before been over 
the inferior magistrates ; and that after his exile, 
he might suffer tortures. The account which we 
have of Lucian tells us incidentally, that the 
torture inflicted on Aurelius had deprived him of 
the use of his hands ; for he was one of those 
whose names Lucian used, (with that pretext,) 
in the letters of communion to the lapsed, with 
which Lucian is less honourably connected, than 
his place as a confessor would warrant us to 
expect. 

For Lucian was a faithful and courageous 
witness for the truth ; though not sufficiently 
imbued with those principles of order and dis- 



102 LIFE AND TIMES 

cipline which might have handed down his name, 
with that of Celerinus and Mappalicus, his 
brethren in suffering, with unalloyed splendour. 
He himself thus speaks of his sufferings, with 
those of several others, his companions ". Bassus 
died in the quarries : Mappalicus on the rack : 
Fortunio in prison. Paul us from the effects of 
torture ; and Fortunata, Victorinus, Victor, 
Herennius, Credula, Herena, Donatus, Firmus, 
Venustus, Fructus, Julia, Martialis, and Aristo, 
were all starved to death in prison. With these 
I shall myself probably be numbered, adds 
Lucian, before this day is over : for now we have 
been for eight days past confined with still 
greater rigour than heretofore ; though for five 
preceding days, our only allowance was a morsel 
of bread each day, and a small measure of water. 
With this enumeration, by one of the sufferers, 
of the various tortures and hardships inflicted on 
the brethren, I shall conclude the account of this 
persecution. Those who estimate duly the im- 
mense moral influence of courage in suffering, 
combined with unshaken virtue, and mildness of 
demeanour, will not be at a loss to understand 
the assertion, that the blood of the martyrs has 
ever been the seed of the Church : and those 
who know and feel that even in Christians the 
remains of corruption, of fear and self-in- 
dulgence continue will not wonder that many 
" Ep. xxi. 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 103 

were found unable to stand against so violent an 
assault. The constancy of those who patiently 
endured to the end^ striving even unto blood, we 
must ascribe to the grace of God, operating in 
them marvellously, almost miraculously; and 
sometimes, indeed, with an evident manifestation 
of an Almighty hand, that neither persecutors 
nor })ersecuted might fail to see, that it was not 
the might of man, but of God, which was thus put 
forth. For those who fell we may mourn ; but 
proudly or harshly we may not condemn them. 
It is God that maketh us to differ ; and he who 
glorified his power in the strong, may hereafter 
glorify his mercy in the feeble. 



CHAPTER V. 



THE NUMBER OF APOSTATES IN THE DECIAN PERSECUTION. 

THE SACRIFICATI, THURIFICATI AND LIBELLATICI. THE 

DISCIPLINE OF THE LAPSED. ITS RIGOUR, AND ITS 

OCCASIONAL RELAXATION. THE PRIVILEGE OF THE 

MARTYRS : ABUSED IN THIS INSTANCE. THE CLERGY 

CHIEFLY IN FAULT. CYPRIAN 's OWN DETERMINATION OF 

THE CASE OF THE LAPSED. 



In this persecution, which was the fiercest to 
which Christianity had yet been exposed ; and 
which found the Church less prepared than it 
had been at any previous time to resist its 
spiritual enemies ; a proportionate number of 
the brethren, in all parts of the Roman empire, 
apostatized from the faith. We have several 
indications of the multitude of the lapsed, not in 
Carthage only, but in Egypt, and Spain, and in 
Rome itself : and now it was that by the united 
effort of the sound part of the Church in all 
Christendom, the ecclesiastical regulations con- 
cerning the treatment of the lapsed, on their 
return to a better mind, were reduced to the 
most perfect form that they ever assumed. This 
was not effected, however, without very serious 



LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CYPRIAN. 105 

divisions in several places ; and the exigency of 
the times, in this as in other cases, called out and 
exercised the master mind of St. Cyprian. 

Those who lapsed in times of persecution, had 
been called formerly, from the kinds of abjuration 
v^^hich had been demanded of them, Sacrificati, 
and Thurificati ; according as they had ap- 
proached the heathen altars with a sacrifice, or 
only with incense : but in the present perse- 
cution, another kind of apostates arose out of 
the circumstances of the times, called Libellatici. 
The two former classes of persons had plainly 
and unequivocally denied their Saviour and the 
one true God ; the Libellatici found a way of 
avoiding the penalties of persecution by a more 
indirect, yet still a real, denial of their faith, and 
by a virtual dereliction of their religious prin- 
ciple. It is probable that Decius had decreed, 
that every one who was accused or suspected of 
being a Christian, should be called on to produce 
a certificate, or lihellus, from the magistrate, 
attesting that he had abjured his faith in Christ, 
or declared that he had never been a Christian. 
The cupidity of the magistrate, and the pusil- 
lanimity of some of the accused, (fearful alike to 
deny their heavenly Master, and to confront a 
heathen judge,) conspired to erect on this found- 
ation a system equally disgraceful to both; yet 
one which should enrich the one, while it ensured 
safety to the other, at the expense of such a 



106 LIFE AND TIMES 

measure of temporizing, as might probably evade 
all censure and enquiry. The timid Christian 
was eager to purchase, and the venal magistrate 
was not unwilling to sell, such a testimonial, or 
lihellus, as was required to ensure a freedom 
from farther molestation : and the Libellaticus, 
or person who had purchased the libellus, 
returned to his occupation and his patrimony, no 
longer obnoxious to the laws. 

The sale of these libelli was more profitable 
to the magistrate than the shedding of Christian 
blood : and it was more subversive, whether or 
no it was suspected to be so at the time, of 
the true interests of the Church ; which flourished 
while it was watered with the blood of martyrs, 
and encouraged by the voice of confessors ; and 
only languished in the sad but silent defection of 
cowardly pretenders. Every facility seems to 
have been given to those who would thus pur- 
chase immunity from suffering ; and it is more 
than probable that many were permitted to 
purchase the libellus, without being subjected to 
a public examination, or to any enquiries. The 
number of those who were detected by the cir- 
cumstances of their defection, was sufficient to 
overwhelm the Church with sorrow and shame ; 
and we need not now speculate on the multitude, 
who may have secretly enjoyed their purchased 
freedom from suffering, together with the peace 
of the Church. 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 107 

These Lihellatici were numbered^ equally with 
the Thurificati and Sacr'ificati, among the lapsed ; 
although their crime was not held to be quite so 
great^ and their ecclesiastical penalty was mo- 
derated in proportion. The discipline of the 
lapsed, which had been previously established by 
the usage of the Church, seems to have been as 
follows. Those who had denied the faith ex- 
plicitly, or by offering sacrifice or incense, were 
at once excommunicated : no offerings were re- 
ceived from them, and no mention was made of 
them at the Eucharistic commemorations ; nor 
were they received with the faithful into any 
ecclesiastical fellowship. They were not, how- 
ever, utterly cast off, nor left to become hardened 
by escaping observation and rebuke ; nor, if 
they came to a sense of their miserable condition, 
were they permitted to remain in despair of the 
favour of God, by being for ever shut out from 
the peace of the Church : but all those who 
would bear reproof and receive exhortation, 
seem to have been the object of vigilant and 
laborious attention from the Clergy of the 
Church ; while all who came of themselves to 
a sense of their condition, and desired the peace 
of the Church, even though their fidelity did not 
return till all danger was passed, were admitted, 
at the discretion of the Bishop, to a penance 
proportionate with their offence ; and were 
afterwards formally received into communion 



108 LIFE AND TIMES 

with the faithful, by Episcopal imposition of 
hands. 

Another and a more glorious way, of re- 
trieving their place in the Church, was by 
actual confession afterwards, and a martyr's 
death. In such cases as these, the long and 
formal penance which was usually necessary, 
which was profitable both to the returning 
lapsed, and to the Church in general, was 
fairly remitted ; since no length or rigour of 
penance could be more effectual than such a 
confession or death, to attest their return to 
soundness of faith and Christian courage ; nor 
could any exhibition of a humiliated condition, 
nor any solemnity of reconciliation, more ef- 
fectually impress the whole body of the Church 
with the necessity of faithful endurance, and a 
good confession. In the case of those who 
actually attested their perfect restoration to 
the faith with their blood, none denied that they 
received a martyr's crown ; especially since 
martyrdom was always accounted a kind of 
second baptism, in which all sins were purged 
away, at least on the Church's account, with 
blood ; as they had been, in the ordinary laver 
of regeneration, with water. 

There were also some cases, in which it would 
have been manifestly more rigorous than wise or 
charitable to withhold the communion of the 
Church from penitents among the lapsed ; even 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 109 

though the whole term of their penance had not 
transpired, and though they had not received 
imposition of hands from the Bishop. Such was 
the case of those who were truly penitent, so far 
as man could judge, and who fell into any mortal 
sickness, before they were restored. And in 
cases in which extreme danger seemed to threaten 
a whole population, due provision was sometimes 
made for the frequent occurrence of such cases. 
Thus St. Cyprian himself, in anticipation of a 
season of peculiar unhealthiness at Carthage, 
proposes in some degree to relax those rules 
which postponed the restoration of the lapsed, 
till the judgment of the Bishop in person had 
been heard : ^' Since," says he, in an Epistle to 
his Clergy, (xii.) '' summer has already com- 
menced, which is a season abounding with serious 
sickness, I think that some indulgence ought to 
be granted to our brethren, and that those who 
have received letters of communion from the 
martyrs, and may hope through their privileges 
to be accepted by God, if they are seized with 
any grievous and dangerous illness, may make 
confession of their fault before any Presbyter 
who may be present, without waiting for my 
return ; or if a Presbyter cannot be found, and 
death seems near at hand, before a Deacon, so 
that by imposition of hands, in order to their 
penance, they may approach the Lord in that 
peace of the Church, which the martyrs would 



110 LIFE AND TIMES 

have bestowed upon them by their letters. The 
rest of the people also who have fallen, I would 
have you support by your presence, cherishing 
them with appropriate encouragement, that they 
may not entirely fall away from the faith and 
from the mercy of the Lord : for they, who in 
meekness and humility and true penitence perse- 
vere in good works, will not be so forsaken by 
the gracious help of the Lord, as not to be 
partakers of the mercy of God." 

Eusebius" relates an interesting case, which 
will illustrate this provision by the example of an 
individual. Serapion had led an irreproachable 
life ; but having sacrificed to the heathen gods 
during the violence of persecution, he often 
implored remission, but in vain. Being taken ill, 
he remained three days speechless and insensible. 
On the fourth day coming to himself, he called a 
youth to him, and said, " How long shall I be 
detained in this world, while absolution is with- 
held from me ? Go, and bring me a Priest." 
After this he again became speechless. The 
child ran to fetch a Priest ; but it was night, and 
the Priest was sick. His Bishop, however, 
(Dionysius of Alexandria, on whose authority 
Eusebius relates this story,) had ordered, as we 
have before seen Cyprian doing, that Communion 
should not be withheld from those who implored 
it in their last moments, (especially if they had 

^ Liber vi. 44. 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. Ill 

asked for it while in health,) so that they might 
die in hope of salvation. The Priest, therefore, 
gave the child a portion of the Eucharist, telling 
him to moisten it v^ith water, and to put it into 
Serapion's mouth. The child returned; but 
before he had reached the house, the old man had 
come to himself. My child, said he, I perceive 
that you are returned, but that the Priest has 
not been able to come: do as he has ordered, so 
that I may be suffered to depart. The child 
moistened the portion of the Eucharist, and 
placed it in Serapion's mouth, who died almost 
immediately on receiving it. Is it not plain, 
asks the historian, that God had preserved his 
life until he should obtain pardon for his fault ; 
and that, having been reconciled to the Church, 
he received the reward of his good works ?" 

Another medium of return to the peace of the 
Church, was the intercession of the martyrs ; 
which was so prevailing, (and founded indeed on 
such good grounds,) as almost to amount to a 
command, when exercised with tolerable judg- 
ment, and consistently with good order* It was 
fair to suppose, that those blessed saints who 
were awaiting in the faith and hope of martyrs 
an immediate crown of glory, and admission to 
the beatific vision, and whose prison was sancti- 
fied to them by the presence of the Spirit of God, 
might especially prevail in their intercessions at 
the throne of grace ; since an Apostle had said. 



112 LIFE AND TIMES 

that the fervent effectual^ intercession of the righ- 
teous man availeth much: and the privilege of those 
whose souls should soon cry from beneath the 
heavenly altar, against the persecutors, was 
thought to extend in some degree to a prevailing 
intercession for the persecuted. St. Cyprian 
himself, reminding the martyrs of their duty in 
this respect, does not forget that they were such 
as should sit as judges with Christ : a consider- 
ation as proper to exalt their privilege in this 
case, as to prompt them to a careful and holy 
use of it. In these considerations, there seemed 
sufficient grounds to attribute no slight efficacy, 
even with God himself, to the intercession of 
martyrs : and as concerns the Church, none 
certainly ought to prevail so greatly with her, 
as those her most holy and most faithful children; 
whose confession was her glory, whose endurance 
was her strength, and in whose blood she was 
more than conqueror ^. 



'' Inwrought y m^yovy.ivyi. James v. l6. 

^ These considerations prevailed with the Church in very 
early times. Tertullian twice alludes to the privilege of 
the martyrs to restore those to the peace of the Church by 
their intercession, who had been cut off from it by sin or 
apostacy, but whose repentance and desire to be restored 
was manifest: and there is this evidence, at least, that the 
custom was not new, even in Tertullian's time ; that it had 
begun to be in part abused, as we may collect from the 
twenty-second chapter of his book De Pudiciiia. Origen 
also has several passages bearing on the same point. But 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 113 

To prevent those evils which might be expected 
in the exercise of such a privilege by the martyrs, 
(and every privilege entrusted to men, however 
pious, is liable to abuse,) it was the custom of the 
Priests and Deacons, who were engaged in visiting 
the martyrs in prison, to instruct them in the 
proper exercise of their privilege ; to shew them 
the necessity of doing every thing in subordina- 
tion to the Church in general, and in accordance 
with her laws ; and, in this instance, so to ex- 
press their recommendations to the mercy of the 
Church, as to leave them to be ratified by the 
Bishop, the proper minister of ecclesiastical 
reconciliation. It was the duty of the Clergy, 
too, to suggest, and to approve, the individuals 
who should receive this great favour through the 
recommendations of the martyrs ; an office for 
which they were prepared by the exercise of their 
pastoral care, in which they became acquainted 
with the character, the penitence, the reformation, 
of those who had yielded, indeed, to the violence 
of persecution, but whose tears and submission 
marked them out as proper recipients of the 
favour of the Church. Under these limitations, 
the privilege of the martyrs, of which w^e have 
been speaking, was a great benefit not only to 
individual penitents, but also to the Church in 
general; affording a fair and constitutional 

for the learning on this head, I must refer to the] eighth of 
Dodweirs Dissertationes Cyprianicae. 

I 



114 LIFE AND TIMES 

method of remitting the severity of Ecclesiastical 
Canons, in those peculiar cases in which they 
were too rigorous for the particular occasion, 
though necessary for the general health of the 
Church. It was the exercise of the royal pre- 
rogative of pardon, whereby the law is not 
weakened, and yet the offender is received into 
favour, and the community gains a subject. 
None could question that the peace of the 
Church was well bestowed upon Numeria and 
Candida, for instance, who had fallen, but 
sincerely repented ; and manifested their re- 
covery not by tears only, but by good works : 
whose brother Celerinus, too, a most noble con- 
fessor, himself in his prison bewailed their fall 
with unspeakable grief, and besought on their 
behalf the restoration of the Church's favour, 
through the mediation of Lucian, whose spirit 
was then vibrating, as it were, between heaven 
and earth. 

Nor should it be forgotten, that in this, as in 
every other case in which a rule of discipline is 
applied by the Church, it was never supposed 
that God's pardon was necessarily withheld from 
those who were not restored to Church commu- 
nion, provided that they were really penitent. 
This principle, which Cyprian expressly lays 
down in the eleventh Epistle, sufficiently de- 
fended the practice of the Church from any 
taint of tyrannical severity ; while it left to her 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 115 

laws those sanctions, by which her purity and 
fidelity must be guarded. 

Thus, whatever there was of leniency in the 
treatment of the penitent lapsed, was not without 
reason and without profit : and whatever there 
was of austerity and extreme rigour, w^as suffici- 
ently counteracted by the assurance, which we 
need not doubt w^as industriously afforded to all 
whom it properly concerned, that though the 
Church might not relax her rules of communion; 
since what was formal and external was a part of 
her charge ; yet God, who seeth the hearts of his 
penitent servants, might receive those to his 
favour, whom the Church dare not, without some 
indication of his will, readmit into her fellowship. 
In a word, the treatment of the lapsed w^as a part 
of Church discipline, and not a judgment upon 
the eternal state of individual Christians. But it 
will be better to express this in the words of St. 
Cyprian himself. " I know," says he, to the laity 
of his Church, '' from my own grief, that you, 
dearest brethren, lament and bewail the fall of our 
brethren. For my part, in the words of the 
Apostle, Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is 
offended, and I hum not? and again. If one member 
suffer, all the members suffer with it; and if one 
member rejoice, all the members rejoice with it, I 
sympathize, therefore, and lament wdth you, over 
those of our brethren who have fallen away under 
the terrors of persecution ; tearing away with 

i2 



116 LIFE AND TIMES 

them, as it were, a part of mine own bowels, and 
inflicting on me equally the pain of their wounds. 
To these indeed the Divine jnercy may apply a 
remedy; yet I think that we ought not to judge 
incautiously, or to act hastily in their case ; lest 
while the peace of the Church is rashly invaded, 
the Divine wrath be the more incensed against 
them ^." 

But during the present persecution of the 
Church in Africa, the salutary laws, which should 
have restrained the exercise of the martyrs' 
privilege, were in many instances disregarded 
by all persons concerned ; by the lapsed, by the 
Presbyters and Deacons^ and even by the 
martyrs themselves : and hence arose miserable 
divisions in the Church, with all the heart- 
burnings and lasting evils of party spirit ; some 
proceeding even to actual violence, and others 
taking occasion from this excitement and division, 
to add fury to a previous faction, and strength 
to a subsequent schism. In a word, the question 
of the lapsed is more or less connected, hence- 
forth, with almost every incident of importance 
in which we shall find St. Cyprian involved. 
We must therefore trace the history of these sad 
disputes with considerable care. 

So soon as the end of April, before, that is, 
the extremity of persecution had lasted a month, 
we find Cyprian lamenting the pride and pre- 
•• Ep. xi. p. 21. 



I 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 117 

sumption of some confessors ; and again, soon 
after, (Ep. vi.) he rebukes some of the clergy 
for a spirit of insubordination, and contention. 
And in an Epistle written in June to his clergy 
he feelingly laments, that the beauty and excel- 
lence of confession was so often tarnished by 
these vices ; and having recommended humility 
and obedience, and regretted his own necessary 
absence at so trying a season, he enters at once 
upon the great question which then awaited his 
decision, touching the reconciliation of those who 
had received a recommendation from the martyrs, 
without sufficient proof of penitence on the part of 
the lapsed ; without sufficient caution on the part 
of the martyrs ; and w^holly wdthout a sufficient 
care, to say the least, on the part of the clergy, 
to maintain due order and discipline. " I 
regret," says he, " to hear, that some of you, 
actuated by pride, and impudence, employ your- 
selves in exciting discord . . . . and that they 
cannot be governed by the Deacons or the 
Priests ; but so demean themselves, that the 
illustrious splendour of many and excellent con- 
fessors is tarnished by the disreputable manners 
of a few. Such persons ought to dread, lest 
they should be expelled from the society of the 
good, being condemned by their testimony and 
judgment. For he is the truly illustrious con- 
fessor, for whom the Church has not to blush 
afterwards, but in whom she still glories. As 



118 LIFE AND TIMES 

for that which my brother Presbyters Donatus 
and Fortunatus, Novatus and Gordius, have 
written to me, I have been able to answer 
nothing alone ; since I have determined, from 
the beginning of my Episcopate, to do nothing 
by my private judgment without consulting you, 
and without the consent of the people. But 
when God shall permit my return, we will 
determine what ought to be done together, as 
our mutual dignity demands ^" 

Although, however, Cyprian would absolutely 
determine nothing in this case for the present ; 
yet he found it necessary to exert the authority 
both of his office and of his character, to 
regulate matters as far as possible in the mean- 
while. For this purpose he wrote presently 
after his last Epistle three others, to the martyrs 
and confessors ; to the clergy ; and to the 
laity of his Church ; recommending to each the 
course that they should pursue, in the present 
exigence. It is from these Epistles, chiefly, 
that we collect the proper and ordinary rules of 
the Church ; and from them we also collect that 
these rules 'were in every possible respect dis- 
regarded in the present case. 

The first fault seems to have been in the 

negligence of the clergy, in not affording to the 

martyrs sufficient advice and assistance in the 

exercise of their privilege, and the choice of the 

^ Ep, V. pp. 10, 11. 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 119 

objects on behalf of whom it should be exerted. 
It will be well if the reader does not come to the 
conclusion, that in this instance the martyrs 
were made the tools of an ambitious and factious 
party among the Presbyters, who actually insti- 
gated them to an unworthy use of their licence 
of recommendation, in favour of men to whom 
they knew that Cyprian could never conscien- 
tiously concede the privilege of communion : 
thus associating with themselves, in their 
opposition against their Bishop, a body of over- 
weening martyrs and confessors, and a clamorous 
party of the lapsed ; while they flattered the 
pride of the one, and excited the hopes and 
passions of the other. 

For in his (tenth) Epistle to the martyrs and 
confessors, Cyprian expressly declares, that the 
fault is not so much with the martyrs themselves, 
as with the clergy, who ought to have so directed 
them, as to cut off all occasion of such disorder : 
whereas, in fact, the clergy were so far from 
setting before the martyrs the rules of the 
Gospel, and of ecclesiastical discipline, that they 
actually, and intentionally, misrepresented them ; 
so that when the martyrs themselves would have 
exercised a proper caution with due respect to 
the authority of their Bishop, certain Presbyters 
rather excited them to insubordination, and 
made their care ineffectual . Thus many were 
actually admitted to communion, whom the 



120 LIFE AND TIMES 

martyrs had only recommended to the lenient 
judgment of the Bishop ; and that before any 
penance had been exacted of them, or any suf- 
ficient ecclesiastical reconciliation had taken 
place. Thus Cyprian, while he does not wholly 
excuse the martyrs, yet lays the greatest blame 
on some of the clergy : and it is remarkable, 
that, presumptuous and unwarrantable as some 
of the demands of the martyrs were, yet still, 
had they been precisely obeyed by the Pres- 
byters, they would not have led to so great a 
breach of discipline, as the restoration to com- 
munion of the lapsed, without the Bishop's 
consent or knowledge. This will appear even 
from the following most haughty letter of the 
confessors to Cyprian. 

" All the confessors to Pope Cyprian, Health ! 
Be it known to you, that we have granted peace 
to all those, concerning whose good conduct 
since their fall you may be well persuaded ; and 
it is our will that this measure of ours be made 
known by you to other Bishops. We would 
that you should maintain peace with the holy 
martyrs. Written by Lucian in the presence of 
an exorcist and reader V 

But if Cyprian did not condemn the martyrs 
so much as certain of the clergy in this matter, 
still less did he compare the guilt of the lapsed 
themselves, with that of the factious Presbyters. 

' Ep, xvi. 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 121 

" As for the lapsed," says he, '' they may be 
pardoned. Who would not seek for life, feeling 
himself to be dead ? who would not, knowing his 
danger, seek earnestly for safety ? But those 
who are placed over them should restrain their 
impetuous desire, and keep them within the 
bounds of proper discipline : or else they who 
should be the shepherds, become rather the 
butchers of the flock." In another Epistle (xxvii.) 
Cyprian expressly tells us, that some of the 
lapsed, who had received the recommendations of 
the martyrs, yet maintained the humble and 
Christian bearing which was due to him as their 
Bishop : and these he very highly commends. 

But of those of the clergy who were involved 
in these errors, Cyprian speaks very differently ; 
as will appear from his ninth Epistle, of which 
the following is an extract. 

'' I have long forborne, dearest brethren, to 
interpose in this affair; hoping that my silence 
would rather tend to the peace of the Church : 
but now, since the rash and hasty presumption of 
some threatens to disturb the honour of the 
martyrs, the modesty of the confessors, and the 
peace of the whole body of the people, I can 
remain silent no longer, without danger to the 
Church in general, as well as to my own authority. 
For what danger may we not anticipate, when 
some of the Presbyters, forgetful both of the 
Gospel and of their place, and slighting both 



122 LIFE AND TIMES 

the judgment of God which is to come, and his 
Bishop now placed over them, arrogate to them- 
selves the sole authority with an unprecedented 
impudence. And I would that the injured 
Church were not a sufferer by their arrogance. 
The insulted dignity of the Episcopate I could 
overlook and bear, as I have often done: but now 
there is no place for forbearance, while the 
brethren are being led astray by some of your 
body, who endeavour to win upon the lapsed by 
their groundless pretences of restoring them to 
the peace of the Church, and in fact cajole them 
to their ruin. The very apostates themselves 
know, that they have committed the most heinous 
offence ; and he who withholds from them the 
judgment of God, deceives those who are already 
most miserable : for then, those to whom a true 
repentance is open, and who may appease God 
their merciful Father by prayers and by their 
future obedience, are deluded to their greater 
damnation; and they who might otherwise 
retrieve themselves, are more miserably fallen. 
For whereas, even for smaller offences, a stated 
time of penance is imposed ; and confession is 
required according to a certain rule of the 
Church ; and the penitent is restored to his 
place by imposition of hands of the Bishop and 
clergy ; now, at a brief interval, before the 
persecution has ceased, the Church herself not 
enjoying peace, they are admitted to communion. 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 123 

and their name is offered with those of the faith- 
ful at the altar : and without penance^ without 
confession^ without imposition of hands, the 
Eucharist is given to them, though it is written. 
He who eateth the bread or drinketh the cup of the 
Lord unworthily, is guilty of the body and blood of 
the Lord. 

" But now the chief guilt falls upon those who 
are placed over them, yet neglect to inform them 
how they should act in this case with due rever- 
ence to God, and to the authority of the Church. 
Hence the blessed martyrs are exposed to envy, 
and the confessors are set at variance with their 
Bishop : so that whereas mindful of my dignity, 
they had originally expressed their wish that 
their petition might be considered when the 
Church w as restored to peace, and I had returned 
to my place ; the Presbyters, forgetting that 
honour which the martyrs had accorded to me, 
and despising those divine lavrs which they had 
regarded, communicate with the lapsed, before 
any one necessary preliminary has been observed. 

^^ For these things the anger of God is 
expressed against us night and day. For not 
only in visions of the night are we reproved, but 
young children, moved by the Holy Spirit, recount 
to us day after day those rebukes, which the 
Lord will have to be uttered against us. Of 
these things I will give you a more particular 
account when the mercy of God shall restore me 



324 LIFE AND TIMES 

to my Church : meanwhile, if those among you 
who act so rashly and proudly, with such forget- 
fulness of their duty to man, and of their fear of 
God, still continue such a perverse conduct, I 
am determined to put forth that power with 
which the Lord hath endued me, and to suspend 
them from their office, until they may be heard 
and judged before me, and before the confessors 
themselves, and the whole body of the Church." 

From such statements as these, we have no 
difficulty in determining, that the chief fault in 
the matter of the premature restoration of the 
lapsed lay with certain Presbyters. The names 
of some of them we collect from Cyprian's 
fifth Epistle ; in which he mentions a letter, 
which evidently displeased him, from Donatus, 
Fortunatus, Novatus, and Gordius. Two of these 
names we shall find often hereafter, among the 
schismatical opponents of Cyprian ; and we can 
hardly doubt that they were all among those 
original opposers of his election to the Epis- 
copate, of whom Pontius tells us. It may be 
well to bear this in mind, for the character of 
these men gives a colouring to the whole history 
of Cyprian's Episcopate ; and the perpetual recur- 
rence of their persons and of their party, affords 
a remarkable instance of the same moral de- 
pravity, exposing itself in various ecclesiastical 
offences, and falling into divers theological errors, 
of opposite tendencies ; alike only in being evil. 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 125 

It is impossible, indeed, to state the con- 
clusion of this whole affair of the lapsed, without 
entering into the history of an actual schism 
which arose out of it ; or which at least took 
it as its avowed origin. It will be sufficient here 
to state, that St. Cyprian continued firm in his 
determination to maintain the discipline of the 
Church, such as I have before stated it ; mode- 
rating the strictness of general rules only where 
particular cases required ; and giving repeated 
injunctions to his clergy, to seek the real good 
of the lapsed, by setting before them the danger 
of their state, or encouraging them to hope in 
the mercy of the Lord, according as each indi- 
vidual might require to be treated ; and all along 
proposing to settle the whole matter by his 
Episcopal authority ; (not, however, without the 
counsel and consent of his clergy and people ;) 
when peace should be restored to the Church, 
and when he should be enabled to return to the 
personal superintendence of his diocese; an event 
which was long protracted by the cabals of his 
enemies. 



CHAPTER VI. 

Cyprian's return prevented by a schism in his 
church. the origin of the schism. novatus :— 

HIS character: his CRIMES. HE IS CITED TO APPEAR 

BEFORE CYPRIAN. HE ESCAPES UNDER COYER OF THE 

DECIAN PERSECUTION. HE MAKES A PARTY, AND FOR- 
SAKES THE CHURCH. — HE OBTAINS THE ORDINATION OF 

FELICISSIMUS : IT IS QUESTIONED BY WHOM. THE FIVE 

PRESBYTERS COMPANIONS OF NOVATUS IN SCHISM. 

CYPRIAN APPOINTS DEPUTIES TO PUT HIS REGULATIONS 

IN FORCE. THE PLACE WHICH VOLUNTARY SECEDERS 

HOLD, IN RESPECT OF THE CHURCH. — NOVATUS GOES 

TO ROME, NOVATIAN : HIS CHARACTER. HIS SECRET 

CABALS : FOSTERED BY NOVATUS. — ELECTION OF CORNE- 
LIUS TO THE SEE OF ROME. HIS CHARACTER. NOVA- 

TIAN's SCHISMATICAL ORDINATION. HIS PRACTICES AT 

HOME AND ABROAD. THE SPREAD OF HJS PARTY. NOVA- 
TUS RETURNS TO CARTHAGE. 



Cyprian had now remained more than a year^ 
in his retreat. He lamented his forced absence 
with deep and miceasing regret ; day and night 
with tears and groans regretting, that he who 

^ Non sufFecerat exilium jam biennii, &c. Ep. xl. the last 
Epistle to his people before his return, p. 53. 



LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CYPRIAN. 127 

had been chosen their Bishop with so great and 
zealous affection, was still deprived of the pre- 
sence of his flock. He found consolation, how- 
ever, in the hope that he should celebrate the 
approaching Easter among them : for at this 
high festival, and at the solemn season preceding 
it, it was the custom of all Bishops to be present 
with their spiritual children ; and all ecclesias- 
tical affairs were so ordered, as not to interfere 
with this arrangement. But the promised plea- 
sure and privilege was denied to Cyprian and his 
flock, by the miserable secession and rebellion of 
certain of his own people, who so disturbed the 
peace of the Church, and excited so much passion 
and violence, that Cyprian compares the effects 
of their machinations to another persecution: and 
as he had before remained absent from his city, 
lest his presence should too much excite the 
avowed enemies of Christ and his Church, and 
lest he who ought to be the bond and conservator 
of peace, should become, however unwillingly, 
the occasion of tumult; so now he declares it was 
inexpedient for him to return, lest the authors of 
schism, though professed Christians, should be 
excited to some sudden ebullition of violence, by 
the return of their own Bishop. 

The seeds of these disturbances had fallen on 
a soil fruitful in evil, before the commencement 
of the Decian persecution ; but we omitted to 
notice them at that time, that we might give a 



128 LIFE AND TIMES 

tolerably connected account of the growth of this 
fatal schism. But after the usual manner of 
such noxious words, it branched into so many- 
separate factions ; each united in itself, but 
separated from the Church by various errors; 
that we shall be called off more than once from 
the main tenour of the history of Cyprian and the 
Church, to expose the crimes and follies, or to 
trace the adventures, of some wanderer from the 
doctrine and fellowship of the Apostles. 

In the Church of Carthage, at the time when 
our history commences, was a Presbyter named 
Novatus. He was doubtless among those who 
opposed the election of Cyprian, and disturbed 
the beginning of his Episcopate ; for a rancorous 
and persevering hostility to whatever was right, 
seems to have been habitual in him. We find 
him avowedly connected with Donatus, Fortu- 
natus, and Gordius, in proposing a factious 
question to Cyprian, touching the lapsed "^ : and 
these, with whom Novatus was then associated, 
were among the Presbyters of whom Cyprian 
says, that they still retained the recollection of 
their former conspiracy, and their opposition to 
his Episcopate, though sanctioned by the whole 
Church, and by the judgment of God himself. 
This Novatus was a lover of novelty, of insatiable 
avarice, proud and overbearing, of ill report 
among the Bishops of his province, and accused 
•> £p. V. p. 11. 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 129 

by common report of peculation in the temporal, 
and error in the spiritual deposit of the Church ; 
he was fawning and treacherous, a firebrand of 
contention, in the Church a destroying tempest, 
and a disturber of all peace *" . This man, about 
the end of the year 249, seems to have become 
obnoxious to ecclesiastical censure, by specific 
acts of violence and injustice. We have the 
following catalogue of his crimes ; but it is not 
clear for which of them he was called to give an 
account. He had appropriated to himself a part 
of the funds appointed for the relief of widows 
and orphans : he had occasioned his wife's mis- 
carriage, by kicking her when she was pregnant; 
and he had suffered his father to die of hunger 
in the street, and had not even taken the charge 
of his funeral. 

For these crimes, or some of them, Novatus 
was cited to answer before Cyprian ; and there 
is little doubt that he would have been con- 
victed, and deprived of his ecclesiastical dignity. 



<= Ep. xlix. p. 63. Mosheim warns us against taking 
Cyprian's account of Novatus without question. It is out 
of all doubt the testimony of an adversary; and we know 
that the best men are not free from liability to mistake the 
character of their opponents: but if we do but judge Nova- 
tus by the specific charges which Cyprian adduces against 
hira, without taking his comments upon them, (and surely 
we shall not accuse Cyprian of deliberate falsehood, though 
Mosheim does not hesitate to do so,) we shall find Novatus 
branded with indelible infamy. 

K 



130 LIFE AND TIMES 

and even of lay communion. But when the day 
for his trial was near at hand, the Decian per- 
secution broke out with such fury, as to disturb 
all the arrangements of the Church, for its in- 
ternal purity and peace. 

Nothing could have fallen out more op- 
portunely for Novatus: he thus avoided the 
present censures of the Church, and found time 
also to make a party to maintain his cause 
against his accusers and his judge, and abet 
him in his future plans. He was not content 
with impunity ; he must also have notoriety, 
influence, and revenge : and he turned the dif- 
ficulties of. the Church under persecution into 
an opportunity not only of covering his own 
retreat, but of collecting round him a factious 
multitude, chiefly composed of those who were 
disgusted with the rigour with which the dis- 
cipline of penance had been exacted from the 
lapsed. So soon as he had gathered about him 
a suflicient number of clergy and laity to make 
his party formidable, he separated, by his own 
act, from the Church ; and not only braved her 
censures, but even opposed to her body a con- 
venticle of his own, and retorted her condemn- 
ations and warnings with insolent and rebellious 
threats. 

His appropriate charge as a Presbyter was 
over a congregation separate from that of the 
mother Church, but in the diocese, and under 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 131 

the episcopal jurisdiction, of Cyprian. This con- 
gregation met on some eminence in the suburbs 
of Carthage, whence the place of their assembly- 
was called '' on the hill!' At this Church 
Novatus collected around him five other Pres- 
byters, together with a large body of the people ; 
taking advantage to this end of the commotions 
which followed on the decision of Cyprian con- 
cerning the lapsed, which he himself fomented, 
and had perhaps originated, that they might 
subserve his personal ambition. Among his acts 
of insubordination, that in which schism and 
rebellion were most formally involved, was the 
procuring the ordination of Felicissimus as his 
Deacon, without the consent of Cyprian his 
Bishop, and even without his knowledge. This 
Felicissimus became afterwards his tool and 
most active partizan : indeed he was a worthy 
associate of Novatus ; for he too had been a 
peculator, and was charged with repeated 
adulteries, and the most heartless debaucheries'^. 
The order of these events is obscure ; and the 
facts, though in themselves undeniable, are so 
denuded of circumstances in the accounts which 
we have of them, as to suggest many difficult 
questions. How, for instance, being only a 

^ Ep. xxxviii. p. 51. and Ep, Iv. p. 79. Mosheim here 
endeavours, as before in the case of Novatus, to take off the 
edge of Cyprian's censures : indeed he is the self- constituted 
apologist of every one whom Cyprian condemns. 

k2 



132 LIFE AND TIMES 

Presbyter, could Novatus ordain Felicissimus ? 
or, if he did not himself usurp the episcopal 
function in that instance, how could he obtain 
so irregular an ordination for one of his own 
choice, at the hands of any Bishop ? or^ if this 
office was really performed by a Bishop, how is 
it that that Bishop, becoming a party in the 
schism, is not associated with Novatus in the 
condemnation, nor so much as named by 
Cyprian ? Mosheim supposes, that as a Presbyter 
of a separate charge Novatus had, or thought 
that he had, power to ordain a Deacon for his 
own Church : and that he did so in this case. 
Blondel had before expressed the same opinion, 
Baronius supposes, though in direct contradiction 
of all history, that Novatus was himself a Bishop ; 
and so, not by an usurpation of office, though 
schismatically, conferred orders on Felicissimus. 
Of these two opinions, which are founded on the 
false assumption that Novatus ordained Felicis- 
simus with his own hands, that of Baronius is 
the least improbable : for it is just possible, 
though only just possible, that an error may 
have been committed in stating the place of 
Novatus in the Hierarchy ; but it is not possible 
that Novatus should have supposed himself 
endowed with the authority to ordain, being but 
a Presbyter, or that he should have acted on 
such a presumption, being the first Presbyter 
who had ever ventured on such an anomalous 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 133 

act, without its being specially noted in the 
history of the Church. Aerius was the first 
person who adventured upon such a theory or 
practice, and he did not live till the next 
century^. 

But Novatus most assuredly did not ordain 
Felicissimus. He probably took advantage of 
the presence of a strange Bishop at Carthage, 
whom he found some means of influencing, to 
obtain the ordination of his satellite : and per- 
haps in his own Bishop's protracted absence, it was 
not very difficult to make out a probable case, 
and one which would satisfy a person unsus- 
picious of evil, for the ordination of a Deacon, in 
a congregation separate from the mother Church. 
Or, reasoning from what zms in another case, to 
what might be in this, perhaps Novatus procured 
the cooperation of some Bisliops, by such dis- 

« Aerius, as Augustine tells us, {de Hceres. vol. x. p. 21.) 
was mortified at not himself attaining the Episcopate ; and 
having fallen into the heresy of Arius, and having been led 
into many strange notions by impatience of the control of 
the Church, he taught among other things that no difference 
ought to be recognized between a Bishop and a Presbyter. 
Thus Aerius revenged himself upon the dignity to which he 
had unsuccessfully aspired: and he has left his history and 
his character to future ages, as an argument almost as forcible 
as direct reasoning and evidence, of the Apostolical ordinance 
of the Episcopate. Aerius, like some others who have suc- 
ceeded him, was a self-erected reformer, actuated by personal 
pique, and regulated by Anti-Catholic principles. See 
Hooker's Ecc. Pol. VII. viii. 9c 



134 LIFE AND TIMES 

graceful arts as Novatian soon after employed, 
to procure his consecration at the hands of three 
obscure Italian Prelates. But it seems to me 
most probable, that some lapsed Bishop, attached 
to the cause of Novatus by community in error, 
might have given the necessary orders to Feli- 
cissimus : for such Bishops were employed, as v^^e 
learn from Cyprian himself, in the schismatical 
consecration of Fortunatus^ This supposition, 
which is in itself probable, will solve all dif- 
culties ; and will sufficiently account for no 
mention being made of the ordainer of Felicis- 
simus, or of his being involved by this schisma- 
tical act in the condemnation of Novatus ; for 
such a Bishop as I have supposed would have 
been already implicated in the whole guilt and 
sin of separation ; and Cyprian would scarce 
have condescended to mention the name of a 
person thus situated, except for some very 
special purpose. The Church knows nothing of 
heretics and schismatics. 

The extent to which this schism was already 
carried, is sufficiently apparent from the fact, 
that it rendered Cyprian's return to his own 
diocese a matter of danger^, or at least of 

^ Tanta apud eos etiam malorum penuria est, ut ad illos 
nee de sacrificatis nee de haereticis viginti quinque colligi 
possunt. Ep. Iv. pp. 84, 85. 

^' Fustes et lapides et gladios^, quos verbis paracidalibus 
jactitant, non perhorrescimuSj, &c. Ep. Iv. p. 80. 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 135 

imprudence : a consequence however monstrous 
in itself, yet naturally enough flowing from a 
schism which separated a large portion even of 
the clergy of Carthage from the communion of 
the Church Catholic. Of the eight Presbyters, 
besides Novatus*", of whom alone we have any 
mention as attached to the Church of Carthage, 
and who perhaps formed the whole of the 
Bishop's consistory, five, that is, the majority of 
the whole number, adhered to the party of 
Novatus, and to his Deacon, surreptitiously 
ordained. These five were Fortunatus, Jovinus, 
Maximus, Donatus, and Gordianus, Presbyters 
of long standing, and the same who had been 
the old oppugners of Cyprian's Episcopate ; 
while of the three who remained faithful, Britius, 
Rogatianus, and Numidicus, the last had been 
lately, and indeed during the very progress of 
the schism, added to the list of the Presbytery of 
Carthage'. Encouraged by so large and im- 
portant an array of Ecclesiastics, this party 
presumed so far, as to declare that they would 
refuse the communion to all who maintained the 

^ Bishop Pearson, the Benedictine Editors, and Mosheinij 
all enumerate five schismatical Presbyters exclusive of 
Novatus. 

' See Ep. XXXV. written by Cyprian to his clergy and 
people to inform them, that he had added Numidicus to the 
Carthaginian Presbytery. Numidicus had already adorned 
the same station in some other Church by remarkable courage 
and fidelity. 



136 LIFE AND TIMES 

fellowship, or obeyed the mandates of Cyprian ; 
and this assumption, though without the shadow 
of lawful authority, though in fact a sentence of 
excommunication against themselves, yet was not 
to be despised ; for it wanted not that kind of 
power which the people can most readily appre- 
ciate, that of numerical strength. 

Cyprian, though absent in person, had not left 
his flock without pastoral charge. He had placed 
the care of the poor and of strangers in the 
hands of a Presbyter, Rogatianus ; having him- 
self provided for their need in the first instance, 
and added to his former supply by the hands of 
Naricus, an Acolyte : and afterwards he sent 
Caldonius and Herculanus, two of his colleagues 
in the Episcopate, and Numidicus the Presbyter 
before mentioned, associating them with Roga- 
tianus in such parts of the charge of his diocese^ 
as could be executed by deputies'*. The charge 
of these persons extended to the enforcing of 
those laws concerning the lapsed, which it was 
the policy of Novatus and his faction to oppose ; 
and Felicissimus ventured openly to deny the 
authority under which they acted, and to threaten 
excommunication to all who obeyed them. Such 
extreme audacity and insolence defeated its own 
purpose, and wholly overreached the mark ; for 
it so far opened the eyes of the people, that 
many thenceforth retraced their steps. Cyprian 
'' See Epistles xxxvi. and xxxviii. 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 137 

himself at once recognized the happy conse- 
quences of their avowed separation of themselves 
from the communion of the Church ; which was 
far better than their continuing its members in 
name, while they were in fact enemies to the 
body of Christ ; and was even preferable, on the 
whole, to the sentence of excommunication pro- 
ceeding in the first instance from the Church. 
" Let him," says Cyprian to his before-mentioned 
deputies, " abide by his own sentence, and hold 
himself as separated from our communion, his 
voluntary act being ratified by us V And, writing 
to his people, he says, '^ It seems nothing short 
of an interposition of Divine Providence, that 
these men have brought upon themselves, by 
their own act, without my will or even know- 
ledge, the punishment which was due to their 
crimes ; and that they who must otherwise have 
suffered the sentence of excommunication at our 
hands, and with your suffrage, have themselves 
left the pale of the Church'"." 

It is scarce possible to record this judgment of 
Cyprian, without a mental reference to parallel 
cases in our own times. Our Church is subject, 
as that of Carthage was in Cyprian's days, to 
the insolence of voluntary seceders from her 
body : we are attacked and maligned and op- 
posed with every available weapon ; and the 

' Ep. xxxviii. " Ep, xl. p. 52. 



138 LIFE AND TIMES 

terms of the communion of each sect involve our 
condemnation and exclusion. Now, that all this 
is very sad, let no one deny, who bears in mind 
the frequent exhortations of the Apostles and of 
Christ himself, to unity and charity and humi- 
lity : — let no one deny, who recognizes in the 
Church a divinely appointed medium of spiritual 
gifts ; and who must believe, therefore, that 
those who are without her pale are deprived of 
great and inestimable privileges : but I think 
that we invest it with a kind and character of 
evil which it does not possess, and render it still 
more painful, when we view it as an attack upon 
us by part of our own body ; as if there were a 
continuing schism within us and among us, and 
brother divided against brother. If any just 
concession on our part, in the first instance ; if 
any fair and honourable terms of union even 
now, were able to reunite these dissevered limbs 
to the Church, it would be the part of Christian 
charity to concede, or to reflect upon the terms 
which might be offered : and if the schismatics 
had been thrust out by us with unnecessary 
contumely, and irritated by improper severity, a 
burden would indeed rest upon us. But when 
we can appeal to history, that we have not been 
the separatists either actually or in temper ; 
when we can call each sect to witness for us, 
except in the particular question in which it is 
itself involved ; when we can, with pious confi- 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 139 

dence, approach God, as loving our brethren, as 
protesting against error and divisions, as in no 
way and in no degree affording sufficient grounds 
for leaving our communion ; when in a word we 
may look on all who have left us as self-erected 
enemies, and self-constituted aliens from our 
body ; we may pity them indeed, and we may 
lament the evil of disunion in general ; but we 
stand so far above their insolence, and so far 
beside their malice, that we need not feel nor 
express irritation, and that peculiar tone of 
sorrow, which is excited by the treachery of 
brethren and of friends. 

In the censures before mentioned, Cyprian 
includes Augendus, (a layman I suppose, who 
had been led away by the faction of Novatus ; 
who was perhaps singularly violent, and so 
obtained an unenviable conspicuousness notwith- 
standing his private station,) and all others who 
were alike criminal were equally obnoxious to 
the same sentence, unless they should repent. 
All this we collect from Epistle xxxviii, which is 
a precept or commission to Caldonius and Her- 
culanus, and Numidicus with Rogatianus, to pro- 
nounce this sentence of excommunication : and 
this we find by the next Epistle that they imme- 
diately proceeded to do. Thus Felicissimus and 
Augendus, with two or three others who were of 
the number of the confessors, but whose pre- 
sumption had linked them in affections and pre- 



140 LIFE AND TIMES 

tensions with the schismatical party, were for- 
mally separated from the Church. 

Novatus, who had before escaped the censure 
of his Bishop under cover of the persecution, on 
this occasion avoided a formal excommunication 
by absence. He was in Rome, whither he carried 
his iniquitous character unchanged ; and where 
he found, or soon made, equal occasions of exer- 
cising it to the peril of the Church. 

For it was now the beginning of the year 251, 
and the chair of Rome had been vacant for a 
whole year, Fabian having suffered martyrdom 
in the preceding January, and Decius being so 
furiously set upon the extirpation of the Chris- 
tian priesthood, that the brethren at Rome had 
not dared to proceed to the election of another 
Bishop. Decius, however, was now in Macedonia, 
and Julius Valens had assumed the purple, and 
was gone into Illyricum", and the Church at 
Rome being left in comparative quiet by civil 
commotions, proceeded to the election of a 
successor of their late Bishop. 

One of the most remarkable of the members 
of the Church of Rome at this time was Nova- 
tian. He commenced his public career as a 
professor of the philosophy of the Stoics ; and 
his mind was naturally attuned to the austere 
system of that sect. A lover of solitude, and 
given to severe moral speculations, and morbidly 
" Bishop Pearson's Ann. Cyp. p. 29- 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 141 

excitable by the suggestions of those evil spirits 
which attack us through the medium of a vain 
imagination, he came first under the notice and 
discipline of the Church as an energumen ; for 
it was not till he had been long vexed by an evil 
spirit, that he sought the faith and help of 
Christ". In this condition he remained until his 
death seemed to be approaching, and then he 
received clinical Baptism. The singular and 
striking character of the man had invested him 
with so great interest and factitious importance, 
that he was too incautiously raised by his Bishop 
to the order of Presbyters, when it seemed that 
this favour was necessary to retain him in that 
Church, which he had entered under such strange 
circumstances, and with the spirit of which his 
rigid temper and harsh morals were so incom- 
patible. The whole body of the Clergy, however, 
and many of the people, protested against his 
ordination, properly objecting against him his 
clinical Baptism?. But what was morose in 



" Beside the Cyprianic Epistles, the materials for the 
history of Novatian are found in Eusebius, especially in an 
Epistle of Cornelius to Fabius, Bishop of Antioch, which 
Eusebius has transcribed in the forty-third chapter of his 
sixth book. 

p Whether this objection was founded on any Canon yet 
actually made in any Church, or whether it was only from 
the reason of the thing, I know not : but afterwards, (in the 
beginning of the fourth century,) the Bishops assembled at 
the Council of Neo-Cesarea ordained in their twelfth Canon, 



142 LIFE AND TIMES 

his disposition, and what was irregular in his 
conduct, was not in the least altered by his 
elevation : for now, involving the true God and 
the true religion in the rigorous principles of his 
philosophy, (instead of reducing his philosophy 
into subordination to the truth, and his mind 
into submission to God,) he imagined a system 
of divinity which had all the faults of his miserable 
ethics '^, and gloomy speculations. According to 
this system, all offences were equal, and all 
inexpiable ; and such attributes were ascribed 
to God, as could not be imagined without equal 
harshness and temerity^. He exacted of Chris- 
tians as a condition of communion, a more rigid 
perfection than the best men were able to main- 
tain ; and declared them utterly cut off from the 
privilege even of penance by their first fall ; 



that those who had received clinical Baptism should not be 
admitted Priests, since their faith was not of choice, but of 
necessity. 

'I Magis durus secularis philosophise pravitate quam sophise 
dominicae lenitate pacificus, &c. Ep. Ivii. p 95. 

^ Quis ante crudelissimum Novatianum, crudelem Deum 
dixit, eo quod mallet mortem morientis, quam ut revertatur 
et vivat ? Vincentii Lirinensis Com. cap. xxxiv. 

I ought not to withhold the confession, that there is some 
difficulty in determining how far Novatian personally carried 
these monstrous principles. In the sect which originated 
from him they were certainly carried to the extremest 
length. Mosheim, as usual, is learned and industrious in his 
enquiries into this matter. See his Commentarii de rebus 
Christ. S(BC. iii. l6. pp. 520 et seq. 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 143 

especially by an apostasy, though in the bitterest 
persecution. 

Yet Novatian himself followed not so rigid a 
rule of conduct ; nor maintained his courage and 
fidelity without suspicion : and no marvel ; for 
after his Baptism he rejected the ordinary dis- 
cipline of the Church, refusing to receive the 
holy unction ' from the Bishop, which was the 
appointed vehicle of the highest grace, and the 
confirmation of his baptismal privileges ^ : and 
how then w^as he a partaker of the Holy Ghost ? 
And during persecution he was betrayed by terror 
into the denial of his office ; for when the 
Deacons besought him to leave the solitude in 
which he had immured himself, to engage in 
the active duties of his station, and to exhort 
the brethren to perseverance and courage ; he 
answered their entreaties in a rage, and declared 
that he would no longer be numbered with the 
Presbyters, but that he would return to his 
former profession of philosophy". 

* Cornelius apud Eusebium, ut ante. 

rh u^vvid-iv Toy rv^civvov, xoit ritv tov (ista-iAZcoq of^oXoytxv, oiovii (r(ppoty7dx 
rivu j3ua-iXiKiiv oi^ovrxi rov "^nvf^oiTiKov fzvpov ro y^pla-iAct,' ^$ gv rv'n'Ot) 
ra (AV^M TJjv oio^WTov rov TTuvoiyiov Ylvivf^otTCi y^dpiv vyrods^ouivoh 
Theodoret, in Cant. i. 2. vol. ii. p. 30. 

" This conduct of Novatian brought him within the 
meaning of the sixty-second Apostolical Canon ; if the code, 
of which it is a part, was so soon framed. '' If any Clergy- 
man from fear of man, Jew, heathen, or heretic, deny the 
name of Christ, let him be excommunicated : if he deny his 



144 LIFE AND TIMES 

The inconsistency of his conduct with his 
professions did not rest here : for while he was 
covertly seeking the Episcopate, he denied with 
tremendous adjurations (opKcoi/ (po^epcov) that 
he desired that dignity: an incident which 
Mosheim endeavours to turn to his advantage, 
as if it was a proof that he really sought not that 
elevation, nor had manifested any ambitious 
pretensions : whereas it was plainly an attempted 
expurgation of himself of intentions and practices 
already imputed to him; for who solemnly desires 
that of which he has never been accused? His 
eloquence was abundantly suificient for all his 
purposes "^ : but that which chiefly won upon the 
people was his rigorous adherence to the theory 
of Church discipline, and his severity to the 
lapsed. The confessors especially, flattered with 
the exclusive dignity and prerogatives which he 
awarded to them, but from whom his ambition 
and inconsistency were at present concealed, were 
especially moved by his eloquence and pretensions 

clerical character, let him be deposed; and on repentance 
be received only as a layman." 

^ Cyprian more than once speaks of the eloquence of* 
Novatian ; not indeed in terms of admiration, but so as to 
prove the fact, that this quality was usually attributed to 
him. Some notions may be obtained of Novatian's parts, 
from the Epistle of the Roman Clergy to Cyprian, (inter 
Epis. Cyp. xxxi.) which was written by him, as Cyprian 
himself tells Antonian. We have also a work of his remain- 
ing on the Trinity. 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 145 

to a singular piety. Thus Moyses^ a most glo- 
rious professor, and one who eventually died in 
prison after torture, was at first one of his nearest 
associates ; but on a farther knowledge of the 
man and his designs, this holy martyr repudiated 
him entirely. Others, however, continued their 
false estimate of the man and his principles, 
and Novatian gathered around him a large num- 
ber of persons, who imagined that in him — in him 
who had not been brought up in the Church, nor 
scarce regularly admitted into it — in him who 
had endured no conflict for the faith ; nay, who 
had avoided all question by a cowardly and igno- 
minious solitude, and now at length showed him- 
self when all danger was passed— that in him 
they had found a proper successor of the holy 
Bishop and martyr Fabian, and a worthy com- 
petitor with Saint Cornelius, 

Affairs were in this posture when Novatus 
arrived at Rome ; and his love of faction over- 
came all principle in him, as ambition had 
already done in Novatian. Novatus, who had 
before excited and organized a schism against 
Cyprian at Carthage, on the pretence that the 
lapsed ought to be received with a short penance 
or none ; now at Rome joined the party of 
Novatian, who denied communion to the lapsed, 
even after the most rigid discipline, and on their 
death-bed, not even allowing them the privilege 

L 



146 LIFE AND TIMES 

of penance. Novatian also had changed his 
opinion on that subject, though not quite in the 
same degree, having joined the Roman clergy 
in their sentence that the lapsed should be 
restored, though indeed with just caution, and 
after the most severe discipline^ ; a judgment 
which he now altogether repudiated, and even 
made his opposition to it an occasion of disturb- 
ing the repose of the Church, and himself 
breaking oiFfrom her body. 

Novatus entered at once into all the designs 
of Novatian, and even outran the ambitious 
demagogue, spurring him to a more hasty breach 
from the Church, and a more determined opposi- 
tion to its laws. So long as the vacant see was 
yet open to a fair competition, there is no reason 
to suppose that Novatian, though actuated by 
Novatus, proceeded beyond the usual arts of 
those, who court popularity, by crooked ways 
indeed, yet without the breach of any express 
laws, but those of honour and conscience. But 
the eloquence and ambition of Novatian, seconded 
by the unprincipled violence of Novatus, were 
insufficient to compete with the established cha- 
racter and sterling virtues of Cornelius ; and 
accordingly the latter was elected to fill the 
chair of Rome, with the consent of the whole 
body of the clergy, and the greater part of the 
y See Epistle xxxi. 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 147 

laity ; and Cornelius was canonically ordained 
by sixteen Bishops. 

If contrast can add blackness to the character 
of Novatian, and criminality to his schism^ we 
have that contrast in the sterling worth of 
Cornelius, and in the unimpeachable justice 
of his cause. St. Cyprian in a letter to Antoni- 
anus gives an account of Cornelius, against the 
truth of which I know not that ecclesiastical 
history has any thing to oppose. Of the qualifi- 
cations and election of that Prelate he thus 
writes : '^ You v;ill more safely collect the 
character of this man from the judgment of 
God, by whose providence he fills his present 
station, and from the unanimous testimony of 
his brethren in the Episcopate throughout the 
world, than from the inventions of malignant 
slanderers. It is not a little in his favour, that 
he rose not suddenly to his present position, but 
that he has passed through all the inferior 
ecclesiastical orders : and having approved him- 
self faithful in the functions of each, has now 
attained through them all to the Episcopate, 
the pinnacle of priestly dignity. He sought not, 
he did not even desire, this elevation ; still less, 
like some who are inflated with arrogance and 
self-conceit, did he usurp it. With the quiet and 
modesty which is among the usual characteristics 
of those who are divinely appointed to this ofiice, 
and which accorded w^ell wdth his native hu- 

l2 



148 LIFE AND TIMES 

mility, purity, and worth, he rather yielded to 
force in ascending the throne, than used force, 
like Novatian (ut quidam), to obtain it. With 
such qualifications, then, with the judgment of 
God and of his Christ, with the consent of 
almost all the clergy, and with the applause of the 
crowd of bye-standers, and with the full concur- 
rence of assembled Prelates, Cornelius was made 
Bishop, when the chair of Fabian, that is the chair 
of Peter, and the sacerdotal office was yet unfilled. 

And how great was his courage and 

constancy, that he took his seat undaunted, at 
that very time when the tyrant (Decius) was 
uttering the most malignant threats against the 
whole of the Episcopate ; and when he could 
have endured with more patience to hear of a 
competitor for the purple, than of a new Bishop 
of the Church in Rome. Is not Cornelius, then, 
to be applauded as a pattern of faith and virtue? 
Is he not to be numbered with the greatest 
martyrs and confessors ? He, who awaited so 
long and so resolutely the approach of execu- 
tioners and tormentors, braving their vengeance, 
though it should be enforced with fire or the 
sword, with the rack or with the cross ? And though 
the power of God has hitherto protected his 
servant in his appointed elevation, yet so far as 
peril and devotedness is concerned, he has 
suffered whatever can be inflicted : and thus in 
his unstained priesthood he first conquered that 



I 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 149 

tyrant, who was so soon to fall beneath secular 
arms in other hands ^." 

The election of Cornelius excited Novatian to 
a degree of criminality, of which it is probable he 
had scarce conceived himself capable : for the 
Episcopate which his ambition had failed to 
reach, he would now compass by actual usurpa- 
tion. He sent, therefore, two of his wicked 
party to some obscure Italian cities, and thence 
fetched three Bishops, pretending that he re- 
quired their intercession with Cornelius^. Having 
got these persons into his power, Novatian en- 
gaged them in so free indulgence at a feast, that 
the close of the day found them intoxicated ; and 
then, by the imposition of the hands of the three 
Bishops, he obtained Episcopal Orders. But he was 
not a whit the nearer his end, until he could obtain 
the influence as well as the name of a Bishop ; 
until he could find a diocese to govern, which 
the three Italian Bishops had not to bestow. 
We must now follow him through his arts to get 
himself recognized Bishop of Rome, in spite of 
the canonical election and consecration of Cor- 
nelius. 

^ Ep. Hi. pp. 68, 69. 

•TfdVi \%XTCitriiTXi ^jyiVy cog oij^gv Trgitr^iviro^zvovq vttI^ ctvrov Trpog tov t?5 
'VafCTii l-riTKO'^ov. Theodoret. de Haeret. Fab. III. v. vol. iv. 
p. SiiB. See also the Epistle of Cornelius to Fabian, in 
Eusebius. 



150 LIFE AND TIMES 

Novatian had now to support his cause both 
at home and abroad. At home^ besides the 
usual arts of demagogues^ he employed one 
method of revolting impiety, at which we almost 
shudder while we relate it. In administering 
the Eucharist, he exacted of each communicant 
an oath of adhesion to his cause ; and while he 
held their hands, together with the Body of 
Christ, between his own, he said, *' Swear to me,, 
by the Body and Blood of our Saviour Jesus 
Christ, that thou wilt never abandon my party, 
nor return to that of Cornelius." And thus 
those unhappy men could not communicate, 
without uttering maledictions against them- 
selves ; and instead of the accustomed " Amen,'* 
at the receiving of the sacred bread, their re- 
sponse was, " I will not return to the communion 
of Cornelius ^" 

In supporting his cause abroad, the first 
business of Novatian was to dispatch letters of 
communion to all Christian Bishops, according 
to the manner of those times : and since herein 
he had been of course anticipated by Cornelius, 
he took occasion not only to recount the fact of 
his own election and consecration, (which we 
may well suppose he did with less regard to 
the truth of the matter, than to the object which 
he had in view,) but also to throw all the odium 
he could on the character of Cornelius ; and to 

" EusEBius vi. 43* 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 151 

affix on him if possible such specific offences, as 
would nullify his election. 

The contents of these letters of Novatian may 
be collected from the notice of one of them to 
Antonianus, an African Bishop, which occurs in 
an Epistle of Cyprian to that Prelate ; who it 
seems had been shaken by the representations of 
Novatian in his adherence to the Catholic com- 
munion of Cornelius. From Cyprian's answers 
to the scruples of Antonianus, we collect, that 
besides the general accusation against Cornelius, 
of an undue lenity towards the lapsed, the 
particular charge was added, that he had com- 
municated with an ill-judged and indecent haste_, 
and with some circumstances of peculiar im- 
propriety, with one Trophimus^; and besides, 
that he was himself stained with the crime of 
the lihellaticL This last and most scandalous 
article of accusation seems to have been an 
unqualified falsehood : the rest were founded on 
certain apparent grounds^ but were magnified 
and distorted, so as to seem criminal, whereas 
they were in fact commendable. 

" Bingham^ by a singularly strange supposition_, makes 
Trophimus one of the Bishops who ordained Xovatian; and 
that to be the crime for which he was deposed, though the 
lenity of his Bishop still maintained him in the communion 
of the Church. But it is scarce possible that Novatian 
should have accused Cornelius of too great mildness towards 
one, whose only crime had been the ordaining of Novatian 
himself. See Bingham's Scholastical History of Lay-Baptism^ 
chap. ii. sec. 3. and chap. v. sec, 3. 



152 LIFE AND TIMES 

" You ought not/' says Cyprian to Antonianus, 
" to wonder, that you receive scandalous and 
malignant reports of Cornelius ; for you know 
that it is the constant w^ork of the devil, to wound 
the reputation of the servants of God with false 
accusations, and to asperse the noblest names : so 
that they, whose conscience is the most unstained, 
may be defiled with the slander of others. But 
be assured that our colleagues have most clearly 
proved, after patient investigation, that Cornelius 
is untainted w4th the ignominy of the libellatici, 
notwithstanding what you have heard ; neither 
hath he received into communion those who 
sacrificed at the heathen altars, but those only 
whose innocent^e has been established after suffi- 
cient enquiry. As for Trophimus, of whom you 
wish me to write, the affair has been maliciously 
and falsely reported to you : for our dearest 
brother has done in this instance no more than 
his predecessors have often done, in yielding to a 
necessary expedient for collecting his scattered 
flock : and because with Trophimus a large 
portion of the Church had seceded, now, at his 
return to the Church with satisfaction and 
penance, and a confession of his past error, and 
on his bringing back with all humility and sub- 
mission that - portion of the brethren which he 
had separated, his prayers are granted ; and not 
so much Trophimus, as the great body of the 
brethren who adhered to him, have been re- 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 153 

admitted ; none of whom would have returned 
at all, had they not had Trophimus as the 
companion of their reconciliation. After advising 
therefore with many of his colleagues, Cornelius 
received Trophimus to communion ; and the 
return of his brethren with him, and the restora- 
tion of many to salvation, was his sufficient justi- 
fication in this proceeding. And yet after all, 
Trophimus was received only into the place of 
laymen, and not, as the libel of Novatian would 
insinuate, to the exercise of his priestly func- 
tions \'' 

We may judge from hence how far Novatian's 
account of the proceedings at Rome was from 
the truth, even when he pretended to detail facts. 
Perhaps, however, if we proceeded even with 
Cyprian's vindication of Cornelius, we might be 
disposed to believe, that that Prelate had been 
somewhat more lenient in his treatment of the 
lapsed, I say not than was right, and perfectly 
within his power as a Catholic Prelate, but than 
seemed exactly fitting to most of the Bishops of 
his age, and to Cyprian himself, as his opinion 
had been expressed again and again. But 
whether this was so, could never have a legitimate 
place in the discussion of the validity of the 
election and Episcopate of Cornelius ; nor could 
any degree of lenity in a Bishop, which trans- 
gressed no rules already laid down by the Church, 
^ Ep. Hi. p. 69. 



154 LIFE AND TIMES 

or no principles by which the Church universal 
would not be bound in the declaration of her 
judgment, be a sufficient excuse for disturbing 
his government, still less for breaking communion 
with him, and with the Church, and for usurping 
his Episcopate. 

These lying letters were not the only vehicle 
of the poison of Novatian. Messengers were sent 
from Rome to the different Churches, expressly 
commissioned to carry a report favourable to 
Novatian, and subversive of the authority of 
Cornelius. The bearers of Novatian's letters to 
Carthage, and of his accusations against Cor- 
nelius, played their part most pertinaciously, 
even after they had been rejected by Cyprian and 
a synod of Bishops : and we have no reason to 
doubt that their impudence was equally great in 
other places. By all these means a great effect 
was produced in the Churches of many parts. 
We have already had occasion to notice the 
hesitation of Antonianus ; which is little im- 
portant in itself, compared with that of some 
other Prelates, but which called forth a vindi- 
cation of Cornelius from Cyprian's pen, from 
which we have derived much valuable information. 
We learn from Eusebius % that at Antioch some 
Bishops leaned so much towards the Novatian 
cause, that a council was necessary to suppress 
his party ; and the schism which originated with 
~ Ecc. Hist. vi. 46. 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 155 

him was not entirely healed until the sixth 
century. 

But we are anticipating the times at which 
the party of Novatian prevailed in distant parts 
of Christendom : at present we find it struggling 
for a bare existence in Rome; where Novatian, his 
error, and his schism, were formally condemned, 
and the three Bishops who had ordained him 
were punished : two of them being deposed, and 
their sees filled by new Bishops, and the third 
being restored to his ecclesiastical functions only 
after he had humbly confessed his fault with 
many tears, and at the unanimous petition of 
the people. 

Novatian's party had been already treated 
with equal rigour in Africa : for Maximus, 
Longinus, and Machasus, his emissaries to that 
province, and the first of them the Bishop whom 
he had endeavoured to obtrude upon the Church 
of Carthage, were expelled from that country. 
But he was only incited to greater exertions by 
these severities ; for he still maintained himself 
as the centre of the schism at Rome, and laboured 
more and more to disturb the peace of the whole 
Church, sending Bishops of his party, with other 
emissaries, into several cities. Of these, Evaristus 
a Bishop, together with Nicostratus ^ a Deacon 

^ In Evaristus and Nicostratus we have characters of like 
depravity with that of Novatus. Nicostratus had defrauded 



156 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CYPRIAN. 

and Confessor, and Priscus and Dionysius, ac- 
companied Novatus, his ever-active and ever- 
dangerous ally, to Africa, whence his party had 
been before driven with ignominy. 

his secular patrons, and had robbed the Church to a great 
amount. As for Evaristus, he had been akeady deposed 
from his Episcopate for schism. See Ep. xlviii. p. 62. 
Bingham., with less improbability than he asserts the same 
of Trophimus, makes Evaristus, one of the Bishops who 
ordained Novatian ; but I find nothing approaching to 
evidence on this point. Bingham's Scholastic History of 
Lay-Baptism, chap. v. sec. S. 



CHAPTER VII. 



PROCEEDINGS TOUCHING THE ELECTION OF CORNELIUS, AND 
THE SCHISMATICAL ORDINATION OF NOVATIAN, AT CAR- 
THAGE ; AT HADRUMETTIUM. THE EPISCOPATE OF COR- 
NELIUS FINALLY RECOGNIZED. FELICISSIMUS AND THE 

FIVE PRESBYTERS EXCOMMUNICATED. ST. CYPRIAN's 

LETTERS TO THE SCHISMATICAL CONFESSORS. HIS TREA- 
TISE DE UNITATE ECCLESIM. LETTER OF DIONYSIUS OF 

ALEXANDRIA TO NOVATIAN. A SYNOD AT CARTHAGE, AND 

IN ROME. THE RETURN OF THE SCHISMATICAL CON- 
FESSORS. LETTERS OF CORNELIUS, THE CONFESSORS, 

AND CYPRIAN. REFLEXIONS ON THE NOVATIAN SCHISM. 



Having now brought Novatus back to Car- 
thage, we shall take occasion to describe the 
conduct of Cyprian in that see, and the means 
which he took for the suppression of the party, in 
the organizing of which Novatus had been so 
deeply implicated, and still continued so actively 
engaged. 

We have said that Cornelius, as was usual, 
immediately on his election sent letters of com- 
munion to the several Bishops of the Church, 
notifying what had been done, and seeking from 
them a recognition of his Episcopate. The 



158 LIFE AND TIMES 

letters of Cornelius to Carthage found a Synod 
of Bishops there met^ and to this ecclesiastical 
assembly Cyprian communicated their contents, 
which intimated not only the election of Cor- 
nelius^ but also the disturbances which had since 
arisen, though they had not yet proceeded so far as 
to the election of a schismatical Bishop. Upon 
this important occasion, Cyprian sought the coun- 
sel of his colleagues ; and it was agreed that 
Caldonius and Fortunatus, two of their number, 
should be sent to Rome to collect information on 
the spot of what had passed, upon which the 
African Bishops might frame their definitive 
sentence. Caldonius and Fortunatus had also in 
charge to do what they could towards restoring 
peace to the Church in Rome. 

It was in the absence of these Carthaginian 
deputies, that Maximus, Augendus, Machaeus, 
and Longinus, the messengers by whom Novatian 
sent his letters, arrived at Carthage, claiming 
on behalf of their pseudo-Bishop, that he should 
be received as Bishop of Rome. There was 
sufficient evil manifested in this appearance of 
legates from another person pretending to the 
Episcopate of Rome, after Cornelius had been 
elected and ordained, to warrant the rejection of 
those legates from the communion of the Church ; 
and to make it necessary to oppose their mission, 
and to refute their pretences, even before the 
fuller information which might be desired should 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 169 

arrive. This accordingly Cyprian and his col- 
leagues did. They soon discovered that they were 
amply justified by the real merits of the case : 
for while Caldonius and Fortunatus were still 
absent, Pompeius and Stephanus, two African 
Prelates who had been present at the election 
and consecration of Cornelius, came to Carthage, 
and furnished Cyprian and his associates in the 
Church with a true account of the disturbances 
at Rome. 

The arrival of Pompeius and Stephanus was 
most opportune ; for the emissaries of Novatian, 
not satisfied with their repulse, had still laboured 
with pertinacious boldness, and by the use of 
slanderous reports against Cornelius, to obtain 
their end. They proceeded so far as to present 
themselves riotously at the religious assemblies of 
the Carthaginian brethren ; by whom it was 
their object that their accusations against Cor- 
nelius should be heard, and their libels read. 
The conduct of Cyprian was most prompt and 
judicious. He doubtless employed the inform- 
ation which he possessed to support the cause 
of Cornelius in the proper way and place ; but to 
the importunate and unquiet Novatus, and in 
the presence of the crowd, he only deigned to 
reply, that it was not according to his principles 
of government to suffer the character of one who 
was already chosen and ordained Bishop, to be 
publicly aspersed, or his conduct to be so much 



160 LIFE AND TIMES 

as called in question before the people. The 
letters, however, of Cornelius, which seem to 
have been free from invective and a bitter spirit, 
were freely read to the people. 

Thus repulsed in all their public attempts, 
these unhappy men went about from house to 
house, and from city to city, seeking to divide 
the Church, and to gain adherents to their 
schism. That they were not wholly unsuccessful 
is certain ; but they found no countenance any 
where with the well-afFected of the Church, or 
with those who understood those principles of 
government and order, by which she was then, 
and ever had been, and we trust ever will be, 
regulated "". 

The Synod of Bishops, who sent Caldonius and 
Fortunatus to Rome, had adjourned for a season, 
after determining that the final sentence should 
be deferred until the return of their emissaries ; 
that it might be pronounced at last upon more 
ample assurance and information : hence, though 
there was a moral certainty of the result, yet the 
members of that Synod were not at liberty, 
as yet, to pronounce individually on the Epis- 
copate of Cornelius. This will account for a 
little incident, to which we now proceed. 

The letters of communion of Cornelius to 
Hadrumettium had been received and answered 

^ We learn all this from a Letter of Cyprian to Cornelius, 
sent by Primitivus a Presbyter. 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 161 

by Polycarp, Bishop of that colony, in an 
Epistle to Cornelius himself, in which he was 
recognized as the Bishop of Rome. But Cyprian 
and another Bishop, Liberalis, had gone together 
into that part of the country, during the recess 
of the Carthaginian Synod ; and they commu- 
nicated to Polycarp the present state of the 
question, with the determination of the Synod to 
defer their final sentence till Caldonius and 
Fortunatus had reported the result of their 
enquiries. In consequence of this, Polycarp 
directed the letters which he had occasion to 
send to Rome, not to Cornelius individually, but 
to the Clergy of that Church ; thus avoiding a 
specific acknowledgment of the Episcopate of 
Cornelius. Cornelius was wounded by this change 
in the conduct of Polycarp, consequent on 
Cyprian's visit to him, and expostulated with 
Cyprian accordingly : the answer of Cyprian, 
though not written till a somewhat later stage of 
the history, w^e shall take this occasion to notice, 
because it affords an intimation of the point 
at which things were left in Carthage, at the 
recess of the Synod. 

Cyprian denies not the circumstances to which 
Cornelius adverts with displeasure : but declares 
that they proceeded from no inconstancy or 
indecision on his part; but that the Synod 
assembled at Carthage had determined to pro- 
ceed to no definitive arrangement, until Cal- 

M 



162 LIFE AND TIMES 

donius and Fortunatus should return with an 
account of restored peace at Rome, or at least 
with an authentic report of what had been done 
there. Of this arrangement the Clergy of 
Hadrumettium were ignorant at the time ; but 
they immediately acceded to it, when it had been 
explained to them by Cyprian and Liberalis. 

And as Cyprian had before acquainted Cor- 
nelius with the steps which he had taken on his 
behalf; so now he is careful to show, that this, 
which seemed less directly in his favour, was not 
done except upon good grounds, and such as 
were consistent with, and even prudently arranged 
for, the confirmation of Cornelius's Episcopate. 
" I suffer none," says he, " to leave me, without 
an especial charge to avoid the dissemination of 
scandalous reports, and without an exhortation 
to maintain the unity of the Church : but be- 
cause of the great extent of my province, which 
stretches into Numidia and Mauritania, lest a 
division in my city should be of ill consequence 
with those at a distance, we determined, when 
by means of the Bishops whom we sent we had 
been placed in full possession of the truth, and 
had the more irrefragable arguments of your 
canonical ordination, and after every shadow of 
doubt should have been removed from every 
mind, that letters should be sent from all the 
Bishops who reside in that province, as has now 
been done ; so that all our colleagues might 



OF ST, CYPRIAN. 163 

acknowledge you^ and your communion, and 
maintain at the same time the unity and love of 
the Church universal. And I rejoice that this 
has so happened, according to my intentions, as 
to seem an instance of providential interference : 
for now by these means, both the validity and 
the dignity of your Episcopate are placed in the 
clearest light, and rest on the strongest possible 
confirmation ; since, by the answers of my 
colleagues who have written an account of these 
things from the spot, and from the relation and 
witness of Pompeius and Stephen, of Caldonius 
and Fortunatus, our brethren in the Episcopate, 
the propriety and entire justice of your title from 
first to last is more fully manifested '\" 

This letter of Cyprian shows us how great 
stress was laid in those days on the acknow- 
ledgment of a new Bishop by the whole body 
into which he was elected : which was, indeed, 
the most assured safeguard of a Bishop's au- 
thority ; and to the Church, the most assured 
■warrant of his orthodoxy. Nor is it unworthy of 
remark, that whereas in these days Rome has 
usurped the whole authority of this confirmation, 
in all Churches subject to her sway ; and has even, 
if not verbally yet by implication, declared, 
that without her confirmation there cannot be a 
theologically valid, still less an ecclesiastically 

^ Ep. xlv. p. 59, 

m2 



164 LIFE AND TIMES 

legitimate and canonical Episcopate ; in a word, 
that there cannot be a valid Episcopate in 
any Church not subject to her ; as, for instance, 
in the whole Greek Church ^ : in Cyprian's days 
the Bishop of Rome was fully as dependent 
on the recognition of others, as others were 
on that of the Bishop of Rome ; nor could 
afford to despise the countenance or overlook 
the least shadow of defection of a poor Prelate 
of a remote colony. 

We have already collected from Cyprian's 
account of the matter to Cornelius, that on 
the return of Caldonius and Fortunatus, the 
whole subject of the Roman Episcopate was 
set at rest in the minds of the Bishops who 
met again at Carthage to receive the report 
of their messengers ; that they directed their 
letters of communion to Cornelius, and de- 
clared that the same should be done by the 
whole province. 

The same Synod which took these import- 
ant steps for the confirmation of the authority 
of Cornelius, and the peace of the Church in 
Rome, took steps equally important to the peace 
of Cypi:ian, and to the repose of their own pro- 
vince, in the excommunication of Felicissimus 

« Yet in fact Rome acknowledges the Orders of the Greek 
Church ; as do many of her best divines of our own Church. 
I only speak above of what she would do, if she were in all 
eases consistent in her own principles. 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. \C)5 

the deacon, and the five Presbyters his adherents 
in his schism. Of this they sent an account to 
Cornelius. 

And the same messengers who carried these 
accounts from the Synod, and the letters of 
Cyprian to Cornelius, also took with them a 
letter from Cyprian to those confessors in Rome 
who had been enticed into the sect of Nova- 
tian ; in which he deplores most feelingly that 
schism, to which their accession gave its chief 
strength and influence. In this letter he ex- 
poses the full heinousness of their crime ; and 
impresses on their minds a theolog'cal verity : 
(to all most practically important in princip e, but 
to them, in their present situation as confessors 
yet schismatics, most unpalatable in its appli- 
cation :) that though the constancy of confessors is 
an additional honour even to the Church herself, 
glorious as she is, if they continue faithful to her ; 
it ceases to be an honour even to the individual 
sufferers, from the instant of their defection. 
*^ Repress, I beseech you," says he, '- this schism, 
respect your own confession, respect the divine 
tradition, and return to your mother, from whom 
you have seceded. Remember that it was from 
her body, and to her exceeding joy, that you 
advanced to the trial of your faith, and attained 
the glory of confessors. But now : — think not 
that you are maintaining the Gospel of Christ, 
while you are living in voluntary segregation 



166 LIFE AND TIMES 

from the fold of Christ, and from its peace and 
unity ; since it would better become you, as good 
and illustrious soldiers, to sit down together 
in the camp at home, and to act and consult for 
the common good. Our unity and agreement can- 
not be disturbed : we cannot leave the fold of 
the Church, and go out and join you ; therefore 
it is that we beseech you the more earnestly 
to return to your mother, the Church, and to the 
fellowship of her sons '\'^ 

Mettius, a Subdeacon, the bearer of this 
letter, was especially charged to read it to 
Cornelius, before he delivered it to the confessors 
to whom it was addressed ^. This was a proper 
attention on the part of Cyprian, to the courtesies 
of the Episcopal order. 

It seems probable, too, that Mettius, though 
without any commission, conveyed a copy, or at 
least a report, of Cyprian's Tract on the Unity of 
the Church ; which was occasioned by the present 
disturbances, and was certainly known at Rome, 
before the Author himself sent a copy thither. 
This Tract, which is one of the most elaborate 
of St. Cyprian's works, and indeed one of the most 
valuable remnants of Ecclesiastical Antiquity, 
is so important, that a review of it must have a 
chapter to itself. We only observe now, that it 
seems to have materially subserved the cause for 
which it was written. 

^ Ep. xliv. p. 58. * Ep. xliii. p. 58, 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 767 

The impression produced by the Epistles and 
writings of Cyprian, was deepened by a letter of 
Dionysius of Alexandria to Novatian. This 
letter affords another, and an evidently inde- 
pendent testimony, to the paramount importance 
of Church Unity, which we have seen so effec- 
tually urged by Cyprian, and which it is now so 
much the fashion to despise as a mere fantasy of 
dreaming theologians ; or as something worse, 
an engine of intriguing priestcraft. Perhaps 
Novatian might judge equally hardly of it. '^ If, 
as you declare," says Dionysius, '' you were com- 
pelled to separate, in spite of yourself, you will 
manifest your sincerity by a voluntary return. 
It had been a sufficient motive for suffering any 
thing that the Church might not be divided : nor 
had it been less glorious to suffer martyrdom for 
the Unity of the Church, than to avoid offering 
to idols. Nay, I even hold that it would have 
been the more illustrious of the two : for while 
the martyr in general suffers for his own salvation, 
he who suffers in the cause of unity, suffers for 
the salvation of the whole Church. Even now, 
if you can persuade your companions in separation 
to return to the bosom of the Church, your merit 
will more than equal your offence : you will avoid 
the imputation of the one, and of the other you 
will receive the praise : but if they should con- 
tinue obstinate, and you cannot save them, at 



168 LIFE AND TIMES 

least save your own soul. I wish you health in 
the Lord^ and that you may learn to love 
peace ^" 

This letter of the Alexandrian Prelate shall 
introduce us to better prospects, and to the view 
of that peace which he so ardently desired : for 
now the question of the lapsed was fully deter- 
mined at Carthage, according to the rule of 
St. Cyprian and Cornelius, which we have already 
sufficiently explicated. This was in August 
[257] : and Cornelius, having received from 
Cyprian an account of what was done at Car- 
thage, both in the matter of the lapsed, and in 
that of Novatian, summoned a provincial Synod, 
to consult on the same subjects. Sixty Bishops, 
with many Presbyters and Deacons, obeyed his 
summons, and the same course was pursued by 
the Church at Rome, as had been already pur- 
sued at Carthage by the ecclesiastics of that 
province ; those Prelates who were absent from 
the Synod signifying their consent to its decrees, 
so soon as they were acquainted with them. And 
now, the case of Novatian being so plainly con- 
demned by all authority ; and the exhortations 
of all good men seconding the principles of sound 
ecclesiastical discipline, and the express decrees 
of the Church ; the confessors who had joined 
the party of Novatian would no longer persist in 
their separation, and they sought and obtained 
* Euseb. vi. 45. 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 169 

admission into the fold from which they had 
wandered. 

Of this joyful event Cyprian received in- 
telligence, first from Cornelius, and afterwards 
from the restored confessors themselves. The 
following extracts from the letters which conveyed 
this intelligence to Cyprian, with his congratu- 
latory replies, will be interesting. 

^^ I received in the first instance," says Cor- 
nelius^, " vague accounts of symptoms of com- 
punction, and of a return to a better mind, in some 
of the adherents to Novatian's schism, from per- 
sons of approved integrity, and well-wishers to 
the Church : and bye and bye this report was 
admirably confirmed ; for two confessors, Ur- 
banus and Sidonius, came to our brethren of 
the Presbytery and declared, that Maximus, also 
a confessor, and a Presbyter, was desirous of 
returning with them into the Church ; but since 
many things had occurred which made it im- 
prudent to trust too entirely to their good faith, 
I determined to hear from their own mouths the 
proposal which they had sent by others. Ac- 
cordingly they appeared before us ; and when 
they had been charged with their criminal 
conduct by the Presbyters, and especially that 
they had very lately dispatched letters full of 
scandalous and false reports, to the disturbance 
of peace and unity through all the Churches ; 
^ Ep. xlvi. p. 60. 



170 LIFE AND TIMES 

they affirmed that they had been deceived, and 
that they knew not the contents of those letters : 
yet they confessed that they had been implicated 
too deeply in schism and heresy, when they were 
induced to suffer the imposition of hands upon 
Novatian, And when the heinousness of these 
and the like actions had been exposed to them, 
they earnestly petitioned that they might be 
remitted and forgotten. When this had been 
reported to me, I summoned an assembly of my 
Presbyters ; with whom also five Bishops were 
associated, so that it might be determined with 
the consent of all, what course should be pursued 
with the returning confessors. At the close of 
these proceedings, Maximus, Urbanus, Sidonius, 
Macharius, and several others of the brethren 
who had joined them, were admitted into the 
presence of the Synod. With earnest prayers 
they besought us to bury their delinquencies in 
silence and oblivion, and promised for their part 
to present to God thenceforth the sacrifice of a 
heart undefiled, in accordance with the Evan- 
gelical benediction ; Blessed are the pure in 
heart, for they shall see God, It still remained 
to inform the people of all these events, that 
they might see those, who had been formerly 
wandering in error, established in the Church. 
There was accordingly a large assembly of the 
people: and with one voice they rendered thanks 
to God, weeping for very joy, and embracing the 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 171 

restored confessors, as if they had but that 
instant been liberated from prison. As for the 
confessions of the restored brethren, I send you 
their very words. ' We know that Cornelius is 
a Bishop of the most holy Catholic Church, 
elected by God Almighty and Christ our Lord. 
We confess our error : we have been deceived, 
we have been carried away by captious and 
fraudulent misrepresentations. For even v/hile 
we seemed to be holding some kind of com- 
munion with a heretic and a schismatic, our 
mind was still faithful to the Church. Nor are 
we ignorant that there is one God, and one 
Christ the Lord, whom we have confessed, and 
one Holy Spirit : and that there should be one 
Bishop in a Catholic Church.' 

" Who," continues Cornelius, " would not, 
by such an acknowledgment, be moved to admit 
those who had confessed before the powers of 
this world, to the full proof of their confessions 
in the Church? Maximus, therefore, we restored 
to his former dignity ; the rest we received to 
communion, with the applause of the whole 
multitude : all judgment we committed to God, 

to whom all judgment belongs We 

believe moreover, nay are confident, that others 
who are at present involved in the same error, 
will soon return to the Church, when they see 
that their former leaders are again associated 
with us." 



]72 LIFE AND TIMES 

The following is the letter of the confessors 
themselves to Cyprian. 

" Maximus, Urbanus, Sidonius, and Macharius, 
to their brother Cyprian^ Health ! We are sure, 
dearest brother, that your joy will equal our 
own, at the step which we have taken ; that con- 
sulting the good of the Church, and passing 
by former events, and committing them to the 
judgment of God, we have made peace at once 
with Cornelius our Bishop, and with the whole 
body of the Clergy. And we write this letter 
that you may be well assured, that we have done 
this to the great joy of the whole Church, and so 
as to carry with us the affections of all. We 
wish you health, dearest brother, for many years 
to come"." 

Cyprian's answer to the confessors shall close 
this series of letters. 

" Cyprian to his brethren Maximus the Pres- 
byter, Urbanus, Sidonius, and Macharius, Health! 
I confess, dearest brethren, that the perusal of 
your letter, in which you give an account of your 
return to the obedience and peace of the Church, 
gave me as much joy, as the report of your 
glorious confession had formerly done. For 
to confess the unity of the Church, is another 
witness of your faith, another token of your 
virtue ; to maintain that the Church is free from 
possible participation in the error or wickedness 
^ Ep. 1. p. 64. 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 173 

of any, is to seek again the same encampment, 
from which you before advanced to the battle, 
and rushed eagerly to meet the foe, and to lay 
him prostrate. The trophies of your success 
ought to be suspended in that Church, from the 
armoury of which you were arrayed for the 
victory ; lest the Church of Christ should lose 
the glory of those, w^hom Christ had prepared for 
glory. And now at last, you have returned to a 
path worthy of your faith, and of the love and 
reverence for the divine law which burns in the 
hearts of each of you ; and you have given an 
example also of love and peace to others, that 
the truth of the Church, the sacrament of 
unity in the Gospel, which was before maintained 
by us, might be knit together also with the 
additional bond of your consent ; and that the 
confessors of Christ who had stood out as the 
foremost in virtue and in honour, should not 
become leaders in error. Others are doubtless 
conscious of a great joy at your return ; but I 
confess that I feel singularly interested in it, and 
my congratulations fall short of none, in sincerity 
and joy. Let me open to you my feelings with 
all simplicity. I was greatly and oppressively 
afflicted by the thought, that I could no longer 
hold communion with those whom I had begun 
to love with my whole heart. When a schisma- 
tical and heretical error received you, as it 
were, out of prison, whither you had been carried 



174 LIFE AND TIMES 

with the praise and gratulation of the Church, 
it was as if your glory had remained in the dun- 
geon. For though there are evidently tares in the 
Church, this ought not so to subvert our faith or 
love, as to induce us to forsake the Church. It 
is our part to labour, that we may be wheat ; that 
when the wheat is gathered into the barn of the 
Lord, we may receive the reward of our labour. 
The Apostle says. In a great house there are not 
only vessels of gold and of silver, hut also of wood 
and of earth, and some to honour arid some to 
dishonour. Be it our care, dearest brethren, so 
to labour, that we may be vessels of gold or of 
silver : but to break the vessels of earth can be 
committed to the Lord alone, to whom is given 
the rod of iron. The servant cannot be greater 
than his master: nor may any one arrogate to 
himself what the father has given to the son 
alone; nor think himself at liberty, by human 
judgment, to fan the floor, or drive away the 
chaff, or separate between the wheat and the 
tares. This were nothing short of madness, of 
obstinate pride and presumption : and while 
some will be always assuming to themselves a 
greater authority than justice and mildness will 
allow, they themselves fall away from the Church; 
and while they are boasting themselves of their 
greater light, their very pride shuts them up in 
impenetrable darkness. Bearing these things in 
mind, and endeavouring to follow the indications 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 175 

of God's will, in His justice and in His com- 
passion, after long and deep consideration, I 
have myself arrived at a moderate judgment in 
these matters : as you will see on the perusal of 
the accompanying treatise, which I have lately 
read to my own people, and now commit affec- 
tionately to your perusal ; and in which there is 
neither wanting just censure upon the lapsed, 
nor such milder remedies as may effect their 
cure. I have also, to the best of my power, 
written upon the principle of unity in the Church 
Catholic : and I have the more confidence that 
you will approve of that treatise, now that your 
own actions and affections may be in accordance 
with it : for you have now, by your return to 
the peace and unity of the Church, exemplified 
in your conduct, that which I have committed to 
writing. Dearest and most beloved brethren, I 
wish you eternal health*." 

Here I close the direct history of Novatian 
and his party ; though it is obvious that these 
events must give a colouring to the future 
narrative. 

If any, on a retrospect of the whole matter, be 
disposed to ask. What heresy did Novatian teach, 
that he fell under such heavy censures and 
punishments, and eventually under such universal 
execration of all good men ? T shall return the 
answer of Cyprian to this very question, when it 
^ Ep. li. p. 65. 



176 LIFE AND TIMES 

was proposed to him by Antonianus. '' It is not 
fitting to enquire too narrowly what he teaches^ 
since, whatever it is, he teaches it out of the 
Church. Whoever and whatever he may be, he 
cannot be a Christian who is not in the Church 
of Christ '\ Let him pride himself as he will on 
his philosophy or eloquence; and let his boasting 
equal his vanity ; he who hath held fast neither 
brotherly love nor Church unity, has lost even 
that which he before possessed V 

That Cyprian's principle is startling, I admit ; 
but the more we think upon it, the more likely 
we are, I suspect, to believe that it is true. It is 
moreover of very general application. It is so 
far from being a sufficient vindication of a sepa- 
ratist, that he carries the doctrine of the Church 
with him, that it is in fact the very extreme form 
of sinful schism, or causeless separation, to do 
this. So far as their separation is concerned, 
(abstracting from it all its antecedents and con- 
sequents,) the Manichaean or the Arian was 
excusable ; the Quaker or the Socinian is now 
excusable ; in comparison of any who may think 
to plead in their justification, that they teach no 
doctrines which ever were or ever can be con- 
demned by the Church as heretical. 

Nor will it be sufficient to take away this 

" Quisquis ille est et qualiscunque est, Christianus non est, 
qui in Christi Ecclesia non est. 
• Ep, Hi. p. 73. 



I 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 177 

opprobrium from separation, that though there is 
no sufficient cause for it in a conscientious differ- 
ence of doctrine ; yet conscience is pretended^ in 
respect of discipline. For the regulation of dis- 
cipline is the proper province of the visible body 
of Christ's Church : and all individuals are bound 
to obey, and not to cavil, still less to rebel : and 
those who pretend conscience in this matter, too 
often mean obstinate opinion, or at best weak 
scruples. Cyprian gives a case in point, when he 
says to Antonian, " Among our predecessors, 
there were certain Bishops in this very province, 
who thought that the peace of the Church ought 
not to be given to adulterers, and cut them off 
from all the privileges of penance : yet they 
seceded not from the college of their brethren in 
the Episcopate, nor broke the unity of the 
Church by an obstinate severity and censure ; so 
as that one who allowed not penance to adul- 
terers, should secede from those who did. In 
such cases, the bond of unity being inviolate, 
and the peculiar mystery of indivisibility in the 
Catholic Church being preserved, each Bishop 
acts as he will, and on his own responsibility, as 
one who is hereafter to render his account to the 
Lord™." 

Of course I do not deny, that by an hypo- 
thesis of unbridled and unchastened fancy, the 
Church may enjoin obedience to such rules of 
'" Ep. Hi. p. 72. 
N 



178 LIFE AND TIMES 

discipline, as may constitute a ground of sepa- 
ration truly conscientious : but in this case the 
Church itself would be schismatical, and in case 
of actual rupture, she would be the separatist ; — 
which is in theology impossible, whatever it may 
be in imagination or logomachy ; — audit is illogi- 
cal to reason on any other than theological prin- 
ciples, in matters of theology. 

But, in fact, there is so much of doctrine in- 
volved in discipline, though perhaps indirectly, 
that dissent on a pretended conscience against 
the Church's discipline, will usually end in down- 
right heresy. In this light the schism of Novatian 
was very dangerous, and its consequences very 
instructive. Its pernicious effects were soon 
evolved. Pretending as its essential character 
a severer form of discipline, and avowing the 
intention of maintaining a more ascetical and 
uncontaminated piety, it might seem at first 
sight, (especially if viewed as a matter of opinion 
or speculation,) that the harshest judgment which 
could be pronounced of it was, that it was more 
rigid than was expedient : more honest than wise. 
But in fact it tended, and that presently, to obscure 
the character, and overthrow the reality, of the 
Church itself. Contrary to the universally re- 
ceived interpretation of the parables of the net, 
which gathered of all fishes good and bad ; of 
the field, in which tares and wheat grew together 
until harvest ; the definition of the Church which 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 179 

Novatian was obliged to assume as the ground 
of his separation, excluded from that body every 
assembly which contained a mixture of wicked 
men : and the obvious inference was^ that the 
Church no where existed : no where, as he him- 
self avowed, except with his own cabal; no 
where, as even his own party must soon discover, 
unless they should be judicially blinded to their 
own enormities. Moreover, the distinctive title 
which he assumed for his party, whom he called 
Cathari (KaOapoT) or puritans, while it sounded 
only as a profession and earnest of greater purity, 
in fact involved a reproach, and was intended so 
to do, of the Catholic Church. '' Having ob- 
tained imposition of hands by robbery," says 
Theodoret" of Novatian, ^^ he became the leader 
of a heresy ; and gave to his followers not only the 
name of Novatians, but of Kathari : and he 
trembled not at the rebuke pronounced against 
some who say, / am clean, touch me not; to 
whom the Lord God saith. These are smoke iii 
my nose, a fire that hurneth all the day; for the 
Lord resisteth the proud'"'' Perhaps some who, 
to this day, would be distinguished by a name 
which casts opprobrium on all others, may not 
be free from the crime of the Novatians, nor 



" Theodoreti Haeret. Far. compend. lib. iii. v. Uio) Nxvclrov. 
vol. iv. p. 34^5. 

" See Isaiah Ixv. 5. and 1 Pet. v. 5. 

N 2 



180 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CYPRIAN. 

undeserving of the divine rebuke thus applied to 
them by Theodoret. 

It was a corollary of Novatian's doctrine con- 
cerning the Church, that the Baptism of the 
Catholics was invalid, or rather was no Baptism 
at all. Hence his party was guilty of the sacrilege 
of rebaptizing those whom they received into 
their number p. Again, they have their parallel 
in certain sectaries of these days. The whole 
complexion, too, of their theology, represented 
God and Christ as cruel and implacable ; and 
was therefore tinged at least with impiety. Have 
they no parallels again in these days? In a word, 
as Dionysius says, '^ We have cause enough to 
hate Novatian ; for he hath divided the Church ; 
he hath involved some of the faithful in his im- 
piety and blasphemy ; he hath brought in a 
dangerous doctrine ; he hath taken away the 
mercy and beneficence of the Saviour ; he hath 
rendered Holy Baptism useless, and hath thereby 
driven away the Holy Spirit, even though there 
might yet be hope of his return'^." 

i^ The Catholics received the Novatians without Baptism ; 
but administered unction to them, on their conversion, as 
well as imposition of hands; for the Novatians rejected this 
part of the ceremony of Baptism. 

«i Eusebius vii. 8. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



A REVIEW OF ST. CYPRIAX S TRACT " DE UNITATE 
ECCLESIiE." 



It was on occasion of the disturbances in the 
Church, of which we have just given an 
account, and in the midst of those of which 
we are about to speak, that St. Cyprian wrote 
his celebrated and most important tract '' de 
UNITATE EccLESiiE ;" — '^ On the Unity of the 
Church." 

The exordium is most appropriate to the 
times. Persecution was then the great and 
overwhelming temptation by which Christians 
were every where assailed : and as persecution 
was the temptation then most dreaded, so was 
open apostacy, and a return to heathen rites 
and superstitions, the sin most likely to abound ; 
and the number of the lapsed was still read- 
ing to the Church a sad lesson of fear and 
humiliation on this head. On the other hand, 
since external assaults are usually found to 
cement a society in the bonds of a closer 
compact, schism would seem to be the sin least 



182 LIFE AND TIMES 

to be expected, and faction and cabals the 
temptations least to be feared. St. Cyprian 
then begins his work against the evil of sepa- 
ration from the Church, by warning his readers 
and his hearers (for the tract in question was 
probably preached as well as published) against 
the deceitfulness and subtlety of Satan, who 
would now insinuate the temptations least ex- 
pected, while the Church was watchful and pre- 
pared against the dangers more obviously im- 
pending. 

To all the commandments of God, then, the 
Christian Bishop writing under these circum- 
stances demands the obedience of his flock ; and 
against all temptations, especially at that time 
against temptation to schism and heresy, he 
forewarns them ; teaching them, that they who 
neglected God's law of unity imposed upon the 
Church, must perish equally with those who 
disobeyed any other divine precept. 

The first point to be proved, according to this 
plan, is this ; That unity is the appointment of 
God and of Christ. A visible unity of a visible 
body; not that factitious unity which was then 
pretended, and of which the liberalism of the 
present day dreams so vaguely, but the sacra- 
ment of unity % or an outward and visible union 
of the Church, as a sign and conveyance, ap- 

' Unitatis Sacramentum, p. I96. bis. 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 188 

pointed by Almighty God, of certain spiritual 
gifts and privileges. 

The first proof that St. Cyprian offers of this 
is the typical character of St. Peter, whereby he 
becomes (not as Bishop of Rome, but in his 
individual personal character) a type or figure 
(not an instrument) of the unity of the Church. 
The two limitations here expressed are most 
important, because it is by keeping them out 
of sight that the Romanists make it appear on a 
cursory view that St. Cyprian favours their own 
Church in his present reasonings ; whereas if 
either of those limitations be found or implied 
in St. Cyprian's teaching, the whole scheme of 
Rome must fall to the ground, so far as Cyprian's 
testimony is concerned. But in truth both are 
most plainly indicated in this very treatise ; 
much more therefore is the system of Rome, 
which cannot consist with either, unsupported by 
St. Cyprian. 

The passage in which the typical character 
of St. Peter is thus adduced in proof of the will 
of God and of Christ that the Church should be 
one, is as follows ; " Addressing Peter, the 
Lord saith, / say unto thee, Thou art Peter, 
and upon this roch I will build my Church, 
and the gates of hell shall not prevail against 
it: and to thee ivill I give the keys of the 
kingdom of heaven : and whatsoever things thou 
shalt bifid on earth, shall be bound in heaven 



184 LIFE AND TIMES 

also ; and whatsoever things thou shalt loose 
on earth, shall he loosed in heaven also. And 
again to the same (Peter) he saith after his 
resurrection. Feed my sheep. He builds his 
Church upon one, [and commits his sheep to 
him to be fed.] And although he committed an 
equal power to all the Apostles, saying. As 
my Father sent me, so send I yow. receive ye the 
Holy Ghost. Whosesoever sins ye remit, they 
shall he remitted unto him; whosesoever sins ye 
retain, they shall he retained: yet, for the ex- 
emplification of unity, he so disposed, by his 
authority, the original of that unity, that it 
might take its rise from one. The rest of the 
Apostles, indeed, were what Peter was ; endowed 
with an equal fellowship both of dignity and 
of power ; yet the beginning proceeds from 
unity, that the Church may be shewn to be 
oneV 

Now it will be observed, that while the last 
sentence is quite at variance with the Papacy, 
every word here uttered may be accepted by an 
Anglican divine ; or at least, whether or no it 

^ In this quotation 1 have followed the Oxford Edition of 
St. Cyprian's Works. The reason why the Benedictine 
Edition and those which it follows are not to be relied on 
here, may be found in James on the Corrupiio?is of ihe Fathers 
and Councils; in the note at the end of the tract on the 
unity of the Church in the Oxford translation of St. 
Cyprian's Works, and in the Appendix to my own " Tes- 
timony of St. Cyprian agai7isi Rome." 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 185 

agree with his private opinion, be permitted 
as harmless, in the controversy with Rome. But 
since the schism which gave occasion to the whole 
tract occmTed at Rome, it is next to impossible 
that St. Cyprian, if he had at all symbolized with 
the modern Romanists in the matter of St. 
Peter's supremacy, should entirely forget to 
speak of St. Peter the Bishop of Rome, as well 
as of St. Peter the Apostle ; and to make him 
not a type only, but also a centre and instrument 
of unity : for there lay the chief strength of this 
part of the argument, according to the Romish 
assumption. 

The typical character of St. Peter is prophetic 
of the Church's Unity, but we have also ad- 
duced by St. Cyprian an older prophecy of the 
same thing ; for in harmony with Catholic inter- 
pretation, he explains the words of the Bride- 
groom to the Bride in the Song of Songs; My 
dove, my spotless one, is but one ; she is the only 
one of her mother, elect of her that bare her, as 
spoken by Christ to his Church. And afterwards 
he adduces many direct precepts of unity, all 
tending to set in the strongest light the intention 
and the command of God, that the unity of the 
Church should be visibly and inviolably main- 
tained. 

Besides these, there are many other indirect 
proofs of the divine origin of the principle of 
unity adduced by St. Cyprian, such as the type 



186 LIFE AND TIMES 

of the seamless coat of Christ, which the very 
soldiers would not divide, and the unity of the 
ever-blessed and glorious Trinity. Many too 
are the warnings which he deduces from Scrip- 
ture, as the case of Jannes and Jambres, and 
that of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram : and it 
is scarce necessary to add, that all those texts 
which are ordinarily cited for the same purpose, 
he does not forget to adduce as positive precepts 
to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of 
peace ; only this is observable, that it never seems 
to have suggested itself to his mind, that men 
could obey these precepts of love and charity 
and unity, while they were visibly separate, and 
actively employed in maligning and undermining 
the Church. 

Hitherto we have St. Cyprian indicating the 
duty of Church unity, but not mentioning any 
instrument or bo7id of union, without which the 
Church would be incomplete ; and which Rome 
thinks that she finds in her own Bishop, while 
Ultra-protestants know not where to look for it. 
Now though Cyprian does not with modern Rome 
make St. Peter personally or in his successor at 
Rome a centre or instrument of unity ; neither 
does he, with the modern Dissenter, and with 
those members of the Church who are best 
designated perhaps as invisible Churchmen Jorget, 
that an instrument of that unity is really pro- 
vided, by means of which the command of God 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 187 

may be obeyed. This instrument of unity, or 
visible bond and centre of brotherhood, St. 
Cyprian finds in the Episcopate : ^* which unity," 
saith he, '' we should firmly hold and maintain ; 
especially we, who as Bishops should preside in 
the Church, that we may approve the Episcopate 
itself to be one and undivided. Let none lead 
the brethren astray with a lie : let none corrupt 
the unity of the faith with treachery and prevari- 
cation. The Episcopate is one, and each Bishop 
so shares in it, as to have an interest in the wholes" 
If any thing be wanting to make this doctrine of 
Cyprian plain, it may be gathered from his Epistle 
to the laity of his own Church, on occasion of 
the schism of Felicissimus. ^' God is one, and 
Christ one, and the Church one, and there is 
one Episcopal chair founded on a rock by the 
word of THE Lord. It is impossible that any 
altar can be erected besides the one altar ; or 
any new priesthood added to the one priesthood. 
Whoever gathers from other sources scatters. . . . 
Let no one, dearest brethren, induce you to 
wander from the ways of the Lord. Let none 
snatch you who are Christians from the Gospel 
of Christ. From the Church let none separate 
the sons of the Church. They who will perish, 
let them perish alone. They who have seceded 
from the Church, let them alone remain without 

c Episcopatus unus est, cujus a singulis in solidum pars 
tenetur. page 195. 



188 LIFE AND TIMES 

the Church. They who have rebelled against 
the Bishops, let them alone be separated from the 
Bishops'^." 

To these passages might be added many others 
to show, that St. Cyprian makes the Episcopate 
not only what he had made St. Peter, a type of 
unity, or an indication that God would have his 
Church one ; but also more than he made St. 
Peter, that is to say, an instrument of unity, by 
means of which the Church actually was what 
God had indicated in the typical character of 
St. Peter that it should be. 

The Church, he adds, after the express decla- 
ration of the oneness of the Episcopate, " The 
Church also is one, and by the increase of her 
fruitfulness, extends herself far and wide, still 
remaining one. So the rays of the sun are many, 
but its light is one ; the boughs of a tree are 
many, but its strength is one, residing in the 
firm root ; and when from one source several 
streams take their rise, though the copious foun- 
tain pour forth many rivers, yet unity is preserved 
in the source itself. Intercept a ray of the sun, 
and the principle of unity in its light no longer 
suffers it to shine. Tear a branch from the tree, 
and it cannot bud forth again. Cut off the stream 
from its source, and its channel is dried up. So 

*' Extra ecclesiam soli remaneant, qui de ecclesia recesse- 
runt, soli cum Episcopis non sint, qui contra Episcopos 
rebellarunt. Ep. xl. 5S, 64. 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 181) 

the Church, pervaded with the light of the Lord, 
extends its rays through the whole world : yet 
the light is still one, in its universal diffusion, 
nor is the unity of the body disturbed : its ex- 
uberant fruitfulness extends its boughs over all 
the earth ; it pours forth its streams far and 
wide : yet is there but one head, one source, one 
mother, present every where in her unnumbered 
progeny." 

But there were some who thought to obtain 
the blessings promised to the one Church by 
a factitious unity among themselves ; and those 
especially, who had gained over the Confessors 
at Rome, boasted of communion with these 
champions of the faith, and thought they might 
on the strength of it neglect the real Church 
Communion with the Bishop, and so, instru- 
mentally, with Christ. In a word, they thought 
to receive the grace of the Sacrament of unity, 
while sacrilegiously rejecting the outward sign. 
With these St. Cyprian thus reasons. '^ Let 
them not deceive themselves with a false inter- 
pretation of our Lord's words. Where two or 
three are gathered together in my name, there am 
I in the midst of them. This is to tamper with 
the Gospel, and to adapt it to a purpose which 
it does not support, by taking part, and omitting 
the remainder. And as they are themselves 
broken off from the Church, so would they 
mutilate the passage, and present it in frag- 



190 LIFE AND TIMES 

ments. For thus did the Lord say, when He 
would persuade His disciples to unanimity and 
concord. If two of you shall agree on earth as 
touching any thing that they shall ash, it shall he 
done for them of my Father which is in heaven. 
For where two or three are gathered together in 
my name, there am I in the midst of them. 
Indicating that the unanimity of the petitioners 

was of more avail than their numbers 

But how can he agree with another, who first 
agreeth not with the body of the Church itself, 
and with the whole brotherhood ? How can 
two or three, manifestly separated from Christ 
and from His Gospel, be gathered together in 
Christ's name ? [And such is their case.] For 
we departed not from them, but they from us : 
and heresies and schisms have a date posterior 
to ours, originating in the formation of separate 
assemblies, by those who have left the head and 
original of the truth. But, truly, it is of His 
Church that the Lord speaks ; and to those who 
are in His Church that He says, that if they be 
of one mind, as He commanded, yet though they 
be but two or three, yet the majesty of God will 
hear their petitions^." 



"•- Page 198. We may again find a parall'el in one of St. 
Cyprian's Epistles. Writing to Pupianus, he says, '^ The 
Bishop is in the Church, and the Church in the Bishop; 
they who are not with the Bishop, are not in the Church ; 
and they miserably deceive themselves, who, not maintain- 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 191 

But not only do such men cut themselves off 
from the peculiar privileges attached to unity, 
but all other the peculiar blessings of the 
Church are to them of none avail. ^' What 
peace do they hope to receive who are at enmity 
with the brethren ? What sacrifice do they offer 
who are opposed to the Priest ? Do they, who 
are assembled together, without the Church of 
Christ, dream that Christ is with them in their 
assemblies ? Though such men should die in 
confession, not even their blood would wash 
away these stains. The sin of dissention is too 
weighty to be expiable by suffering. He who 
is not in the Church cannot be a martyr V 

And in respect both of criminality and of 
wretchedness of condition, he postpones the sepa- 
ratists even to the lapsed^. " Their crime is 
more than that with which the lapsed appear 
to be stained : for those do at least deprecate 
the wrath of God, with all the appointed offices 
of penance. The lapsed seek after the Church 
as suppliants : schismatics resist the Church. The 



ing communion with the Bishops of God^ think cunningly 
to insinuate themselves into the Church, by communicating 
with certain others ; whereas the Church, which is one and 
Catholic, will not endure separation and schism, but is 
united and consolidated through all its parts by the cement 
of an united Episcopate." 

' p. 198. 

" This is in exact harmony with the Epistle of Dionysius 
to Novatian, upon his schism. 



192 LIFE AND TIMES 

lapsed yielded to force and compulsion : schis- 
matics cleave with full purpose to their sin. 
The one injures his own soul alone, the other 
perils the souls of many. The one sees that he 
has sinned, and weeps and laments ; the other 
elated in his wilfulness, and rejoicing in his very 
crimes, separates children from their mother, 
allures sheep from their fold, and subverts the 
Sacrament of God ; and whereas the lapsed has 
once sinned, the other offends daily. Finally, 
the lapsed may be received into the kingdom 
of heaven after martyrdom ; but he w^ho is slain 
out of the Church hath no part in the rewards 
of the Church »'." 

How terrible we may well say is the picture 
which St. Cyprian presents, and to which all the 
saints of that age agree, of the state of heretics 
and schismatics ! And since the very elect may 
be almost within the deceptive art of the tempter, 
how great reason that we should not be high- 
minded but fear ! Yet the temptation to schism, 
in St. Cyprian's view of it, is only another way 
by which the great enemy destroys the souls of 
those who in truth are his, though other trials 
had failed to move them. " Let none," says 
he, " account it possible for the good to depart 
from the Church. The wind carries not away 
the wheat ; nor does the storm tear up the 
firmly rooted *tree. It is the chaff that flies 
" PaffeSOl. 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 193 

before the wind ; it is the rotten trunk that 
is shattered by the storm. Such are they whom 
St. John transfixes with a curse : They went out 
from us, because they zc^ere not of us : for if they 
had been of us, no doubt they would have continued 

with us The Lord suffers these things to be, 

leaving still to each his free will ; that while the 
choice of truth attests the sincerity of our hearts 
and minds, the unshaken faith of the approved 
may shine with redoubled lustre. The Holy 
Spirit forewarns us of this by the Apostle : 
There must be heresies, that they which are 
approved may be made manifest among you. 
Thus are the faithful proved ; thus are the 
faithless detected. Thus, even before the day 
of judgment, are the works of the just and 
of the unjust divided, and the chaff separated 
from the wheat V 

After these copious extracts, it is scarce neces- 
sary to notice the grave and indignant warnings 
against separation, and the affectionate and 
earnest entreaties to peace and unity, by which 
they are follow^ed. But perhaps some one will 
ask. Is there nothing in the tract which we are 
examining about that charity, that bond of 
peace, which is as the soul, of which external 
visible unity is the body ? I must remind those 
who should thus ask, that St. Cyprian is ex- 
pressly writing about the visible unity, about 
' Page 197. 
O 



194 LIFE AND TIMES 

the sacramentum unitatis ; so that he need not 
be accused of indifference to love and charity, 
though he had said but little about them : but 
in fact his ardent and aifectionate spirit would 
not miss the opportunity of commending those 
Christian graces ; and he again and again refers 
to them in very energetic terms. One passage 
(but it is one out of many) shall suffice. '^ In 
the house of God, in the Church of Christ, they 
dwell with united affections, in concord and 
singleness of heart. And therefore came the 
Holy Spirit in the form of a dove. A creature 
of cheerfulness and simplicity ; bitter with no 
gall, fierce and violent with no savage beak and 
hooked talons, delighting in the dwellings of 
man, consorting together and rearing their young 
in an house : flying side by side in their wander- 
ings from their nests, sweetening life with society 
and a mutual affection, betokening their peace 
with gentle kisses, and in all things living ac- 
cording to a law^ of love. Such simplicity, such 
love, should be seen within Church, and from 
the dove should the love of the brethren take its 
pattern's" 

Such is an imperfect sketch of the tract of 
Cyprian on the unity of the Church. The 
abstract propositions which it maintains are and 
will ever be true. Their application to present 
circumstances may be difficult ; and certainly is 
" Pages 196, 197- 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 195 

far more so than when St. Cyprian wrote : for 
though the mystical holiness and truth of the 
Church remain perfect to the eye of faith ; yet 
if She hath in any degree (and who shall dare to 
say that She hath not ?) presented to the eye of 
sense a far different aspect ; with Her assuredly 
is some part of the sin^ and much of the shame, 
when Her weaker sons are scandalized. It is 
still their duty to live by faith ; but if She hath 
made it harder to them, though they be not 
excused, surely Her own children will less readily 
cast the stone. 

Against two extreme forms, however, of schis- 
matical proceeding, there can be neither hesita- 
tion nor danger in declaring all that Cyprian 
says to be just as true as ever, even in its 
direct application. If there be any who deny 
not the truth of the Church's doctrine, and the 
sufficiency of the means of grace, which she 
herself affords, or which may be had in perfect 
harmony with her laws ; yet with unordained 
hands and with no Apostolic commission, present 
the mockery of an altar and of the Christian 
Sacraments ; they are wofully deceiving the 
people, and feeding them with husks, whereas 
in their Father's house is enough and to spare 
for the meanest servants. 

And again, the Romish Church, which first of 
all had so extremely overlaid the truth of Christ 
with error, and the purity of the Church with 

o2 



196 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CYPRIAN. 

sin and crime, that its holiness and its catholicity 
was removed, except from the most piercing eye 
of faith ; so that we might almost say, that even 
had we separated we should have been (dare I 
say justified ? yet) at least forgiven : and at last, 
when we laboured earnestly to go back to a pri- 
mitive faith and catholic practice; and would not, 
while we left the error, and escaped the sin, be 
driven, taunted, persecuted to separation ; herself, 
by her own act separated us from her communion : 
and then came hither by intrusion, and set up 
Bishop against Bishop, and altar against altar ; — 
surely thus doing, the Romish Church does bring 
itself, and its adherents in this land, under the 
very meaning of St. Cyprian's definitions of 
schism, and within the range of his reprobation. 



CHAP. IX. 

SCHISM AT CARTHAGE, — ITS ORIGIN. THE SURREPTITIOUS 

ORDINATION OF FORTUNATUS. THE SCHISMATICS APPLY 

TO CORNELIUS FOR HIS SUPPORT: THEY ARE AT FIRST 

REPELLED, BUT AFTERWARDS TOO FAVOURABLY HEARD. 

ST. CYPRIAN EXPOSTULATES WITH CORNELIUS. THE EX- 
TINCTION OF FORTUNATUS'S PARTY. MAXIMUS ORDAINED 

BY THE NOVATIANS IN CARTHAGE. HIS FACTION CON- 
TEMPTIBLE. 



We have no sooner concluded the history of 
the attempt of Novatian on the peace of the 
Church in Rome, than we are called upon to 
record a similar series of events in Carthage. 
They were indeed of far less importance ; nor did 
they originate any party which long existed as a 
separate communion : yet they gave some trouble 
to Cyprian ; and called for the application of 
precisely the same principles of Church govern- 
ment and discipline, which were so fully elicited 
during the scandalous schism of the Novatians 
at Rome, and embodied with so great skill and 
judgment in the work we have just reviewed. 
And it is singular enough, that both these schisms 



108 LIFE AND TIMES 

should indirectly have occasioned for a while 
some mutual distrust of one another in S. Cor- 
nelius and S. Cyprian : for as Cyprian's having 
suspended his formal judgment touching the 
Episcopate of Cornelius, though for good purposes, 
had called forth a remonstrance from that Pre- 
late, who knew not the motives by which Cyprian 
was actuated ; so also did the hesitation which 
was occasioned in the mind of Cornelius by the 
false reports of the enemies of Cyprian, when 
there were no sufficient sources of authentic in- 
formation at hand, give occasion to an expostu- 
latory Epistle of Cyprian. From this Epistle 
we extract the following accounts. 

Many years before, one Privatus, a notorious 
heretic, had been condemned at Lambesa, in 
Numidia, by a Synod of ninety Bishops ; whose 
judgment had been approved by Fabianus and 
Donatus, the predecessors of Cornelius and of 
Cyprian in their respective sees. This man came 
to Carthage, accompanied by Felix, (whom he 
had schismatically ordained Bishop,) and by Maxi- 
mus, Jovinus, and Repostus, who had lapsed in 
the late persecution. Privatus, thus accompanied, 
wished, it seems, or pretended a wish, to obtain a 
second hearing of his cause at Carthage ; but this 
being denied him, he with his four companions, join- 
ing this party of Felicissimus, determined on con- 
stituting in the Church of Carthage an Episcopal 
head to their schismatical body. They fixed on 



4 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 199 

Fortunatus, of whom we have already heard as 
one of the five presbyters who took part with 
Felicissimus in his schism ; and they gave out 
that five and twenty Bishops were to join them 
from Numidia, to assist at his ordination. This, 
however, was a vain boast, for five only, and 
they excommunicated, assembled for this pur- 
pose. 

Cornelius was already acquainted with the 
name of Fortunatus, and catalogues had been 
sent to him from Carthage both of those Bishops 
who were sound in the faith, and also of those 
Bishops and others who had been condemned and 
expelled the Church ; Cyprian therefore deemed 
it hardly necessary to convey a particular account 
of these matters to Cornelius by a special mes- 
senger. He did, however, write to Rome soon 
after by Felicissimus ; but in the mean while 
Felicissimus arrived at that city, together with 
other adherents of Fortunatus, there to appeal 
against the judgment of the African Prelates, 
and to produce the evidence on which they 
claimed that Fortunatus should be recognized as 
Bishop of Carthage. 

At first Cornelius utterly rejected the claims 
of these impudent pretenders ; but when they re- 
peated the lies which they had forged at Carthage, 
and gave out that the number of Bishops assisting 
at the ordination of Fortunatus w^as that which 
they had at first promised to produce, — not five. 



200 LIFE AND TIMES 

but twenty-five; — and threatened to read the 
letters which they had brought with them in 
public, if they were not received by Cornelius, 
and to spread many scandalous reports : Corne- 
lius was so far moved by their threats, that his 
determination was shaken, and he addressed a 
letter to Cyprian, seeking farther information 
upon the subject. 

This application called forth the reply, from 
which this account is taken. All the circum- 
stances of the ordination of Fortunatus, Cyprian 
relates as we have given them, and expostulates 
somewhat warmly with Cornelius, for his vacilla- 
tion in so clear a cause. He tells Cornelius, 
in his own behalf, as he had before told Anto- 
nianus on behalf of Cornelius, that we are not to 
listen to the scandalous reports of factious and 
ungodly men, and such as the Church repudiates: 
he reminds him that such attacks upon his cha- 
racter by those who profess the same religion, 
are a part of the portion of a good Bishop in this 
world, as well as the open violence of Jews and 
heathens; even as Jacob and Joseph both suffered 
from the enmity of their brethren, and Christ 
himself was betrayed by a disciple. The foul 
calumnies which the followers of Fortunatus 
vented he turns to an evidence against them ; 
for the evil man out of the evil treasure of his 
heart bringeth forth evil things : and especially 
when they are spoken against the priest of God ; 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 20J 

since it is written/' he that despiseth you despiseth 
me ;" and since our Lord himself and St. Paul 
illustrated by their conduct and precept the 
general rule, " thou shalt not speak evil of the 
ruler of thy people." 

Thus having stated the source of such irreve- 
rence to the sacred office which he held, he goes 
on to point out its consequences also : that here- 
sies have no other origin but this, that the priest of 
God is not obeyed, and that it is not sufficiently 
remembered, that there is but one Bishop at a 
time in a Church, and but one judge, in the 
place of Christ; that if the whole brotherhood 
would obey him, according to the divine institu- 
tion, no one would be found to devise practices 
against the college of Bishops : no one, in oppo- 
sition to the judgment of God, to the suffrage of 
the people, to the consent of the Episcopate, 
already declared in behalf of any, would erect 
himself into a judge not so much of his Bishop as 
of God himself: no one would rend the Church 
of Christ by a breach of unity ; no one would 
indulge his vanity and pride by the erection of a 
new heresy*. 

Then he proceeds to set forth his own testi- 
monies as the one Bishop in his see ; his election^, 
his constancy in persecution, and the like; and after 
giving an account of the proceedings of Fortu- 

=* Neqiie enim aliunde hsereses obortee sunt, &c. Ep, Iv. 
p. 82. 



202 LIFE AND TIMES 

natus and his party, with a view of their 
characters; which we will gladly omit, or at 
least sum up in the single expression of Cyprian, 
that Fortunatus and they were worthy associates, 
he as a ruler, they as his people : — after having 
declared that the threats which they uttered 
against him personally made them murderers 
in the sight of God'': — after especially intimating 
their guilt, and largely proving its heinousness, in 
too readily receiving the lapsed ; he enters upon 
another ground of complaint against them, and 
shows that the very fact of their carrying their 
cause to Rome, after it had been heard and 
determined in their own province, was in itself 
criminal, so that it ought not only not to be 
encouraged, but not so much as permitted by 
Cornelius. 

St. Cyprian's words are as follows : '' After 
these schismatical proceedings, and when a false 
Bishop had been ordained for them by heretics, 
they dare to take ship, and to carry letters from 
schismatics and profane persons, to the see of 
Peter, and to a principal Church, from whence 
the unity of the Episcopate took its rise ; for- 
getting that it was the Romans, whose faith is 
applauded in the preaching of the Apostle ; to 
whom perfidy could have no access. But where- 
fore did they come, and tell you of their having 

'' Fustis et lapidis et gladios - quod in illis est, homicidae 
sunt apud Deum tales. Ep. Iv. p. 80. 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 203 

ordained a pseudo-bishop, in opposition to the 
(true) Bishops ? For either they are still pleased 
with their deed, and persevere in their crime ; 
or if they regret it, and would retrace their steps, 
they know whither they should return. For since 
it has been determined by us all, as indeed is 
just and fit, that the cause of every man should 
be heard where his offence was committed ; and 
that a portion of the flock should be attached to 
each pastor, to be by him ruled and governed, 
each having to render an account of his actions 
to the Lord ; it is fit that those over whom we 
rule should not wander about, nor make a breach 
in the coherent concord of Bishops, by their own 
artifice and deceitful boldness ; but that they 
should plead their cause where they may both 
find accusers, and witnesses of their crime. 
Unless, indeed, to a few desperate and aban- 
doned wretches, the authority of the Bishops 
constituted in Africa, who have already judged 
their cause, and with the weight of their sentence 
confirmed the condemnation of their consciences, 
bound with many crimes, seem inferior. Their 
cause is already determined ; their sentence is 
already pronounced : nor is it fit that the judg- 
ment of Bishops should be subject to the repre- 
hension of inconsistency and change." 

And afterwards : " They have not the face to 
appear before us, and to remain with us, so 
heinous and weighty are the crimes which are 



204 LIFE AND TIMES " 

alleged against them. Yet, if they be willing 
to submit to my judgment, let them come. 
Let them show their penitence, for the Church is 
shut against none ; and as for my personal acces- 
sibility and mildness, they cannot deny it." 

These passages are not unworthy of note, 
as conveying expressly, what we shall find more 
than once implied in the following pages, the 
judgment of St. Cyprian, and in him I will ven- 
ture to say of the Church Universal in his days 
and for ever, concerning appeals to Rome, wherein 
consists one important branch of the supremacy 
usurped by that see ''. 

" The nearest approach that was ever made by any Eccle- 
siastical Synod, that could be deemed better than a party 
cabal, towards investing Rome with the privilege of hearing 
appeals, was made by the Sardican Council, about a hundred 
years after Cyprian's time. It was then determined, that if 
any particular Bishop felt aggrieved by the judgment of his 
comprovincial Bishops, he might apply to JuliuS;, Bishop of 
Rome, (observe not to the Bishop of Rome absolutely, but to 
Julius the then Bishop,) in order to another trial, (but 
observe) not before Julius personally, or in his courts, but 
before such Bishops of the next adjoining province as he 
should appoint ; or ultimately, under certain circumstances, 
before his legates. 

Now, in the first place, this Sardican Council is not of 
universal authority ; and the time was when Rome thought 
so too, or acted at least as if she thought so. For in the 
year 415, Irsinius, Bishop of Rome, rejudged the cause 
of Apiarius, an African priest, who had been deposed by 
his own Bishop, prelending the aiilhorily of the Council of 
Nice for these Sardican Canons, as if conscious that they 
required the authority of that greater Council; and under this 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 205 

It is needless to add^ that the cause of Cyprian, 
just in itself, and thus advocated, was wholly 



pretended authority he sent his legate into Africa, to hear 
the cause of Apiarius. It so happened that a Synod of 
two hundred and seventy Bishops, among whom was the 
great St. Augustine, was assembled at that time ; and they 
all replied, that they knew of no such Canon among those of 
Nice ; and after six years, during the whole of which time 
it should seem the imposition was attempted, they declared 
their final decision, that the Nicene Fathers had determined 
the contrary to what was pretended by the Roman legates ; 
that delinquent Clergymen were thereby left to the judg- 
ment of their own Bishops, and Bishops to that of their 
Metropolitans; and that all such matters should be deter- 
mined in the places where they arose : that the grace of the 
Holy Spirit would not be wanting in each province, for the 
right ordering of all such matters ; and that they could find 
no decree of the Fathers which justified the proceedings of 
Rome in sending legates to them. 

But, secondly, it was not without a reason that the power 
then given to Julius, Bishop of Rome, was limited in the 
Sardican Canons to Mm personally. The Council of Sardica 
met to restore St. Athanasius, and to provide for the con- 
tinued security of the orthodox. Now the Emperor had 
the same privilege of granting a re-hearing which is 
here given to Julius : and the then Emperor was Con- 
stantius, an Arian, of that very sect against whose machina- 
tions the Canons in question were intended as safeguards. 
The exigency, then, arising from the heterodoxy of the pre- 
sent Emperor J was met by transferring one of his privileges, 
by an internal arrangement of the Church, to the present 
Bishop of Rome. The whole matter was an expedient, and 
fell to the ground, both according to the letter and to the 
spirit of the Canons in question, when the present necessity 
was passed. 

But although that just stated is the nearest approach 
towards giving to Rome a power of hearing appeals, yet it is 



206 LIFE AND TIMES 

triumphant at Rome and elsewhere ; indeed he 
tells us, that by the very fact of the ordination of 
Fortunatus, the faction which adhered to him 
was diminished almost to nothing, so that they 
could scarce number among their adherents, lay 
or cleric, so many as had joined in their con- 
demnation '' : for this shameless act opened the 
eyes of all who were hitherto deceived by the 
pretensions of that party, and by the hope of 
being re-admitted into the Church by their means, 
the possibility of which was now precluded. I 
do not know that we hear any thing more of this 
desperate faction. 

The ordination of Maximus by the Novatian 
party at Carthage was still more obscure ; and 
scarce gives us an opportunity of mentioning, 
that there were now three rival Bishops in Car- 
thage. The only account which Cyprian deigns 
to give of this latter pretender is contained in 
the following passage of the letter so often 
lately quoted. " It is scarcely consistent with 
the majesty of the Catholic Church, to notice 

not the nearest approach to the like power given to another 
Church ; the nearest approach to the power now claimed by 
Rome that was ever given to any Church, was given by the 
Fathers assembled at Chalcedon to the See of Constanti- 
nople. See Canon ix. of that Council. 

In the whole matter of this note, consult Johnson's Vade 
Mecum ; and see also Palmer's Treatise on the Church of 
Christ, part ii. ch. 2, 
• '-' Ep. Iv. page 87. 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. *207 

the impudent attempts of heretics and schis- 
matics ; I hear, however, that a party of the 
Novatians have lately sent as their Bishop into 
these parts, one Maximus, whom I had already 
excommunicated." The best use to make of 
such accounts, is to collect from them the 
testimony even of heretics to the necessity of 
that discipline which the Catholic Church has 
ever maintained. It seems that in those days it 
was not thought possible to assume even the 
external figure of a Church, without the pre- 
sence of a Bishop : and that too, a Bishop of 
that particular Church, where the schismatics 
assembled. It would have seemed monstrous 
then to have assumed the character of a Chris- 
tian Church without a Bishop, or of a Christian 
Church, in London .for instance, under a Bishop 
of Olena. But some in these wiser days seem to 
think otherwise. 



CHAP. X. 



persecution renewed on occasion oe the plague. 

Cyprian's apologetic letter to demetrian. — his 
epistle to the thybaritani. — the penitent lapsed 

admitted to communion, in anticipation or PER- 
secution. the exhortation to martyrdom. st. 

Cyprian's last letter to st. Cornelius. — death of 
cornelius. of lucius. how far persecution a test 

OF TRUTH. 



Before Cornelius received the account of For- 
tunatus and his schism, a new scene of persecution 
had opened upon the Church ; for Cyprian says, 
that he had been called for by the enraged populace 
to the lions, while he was writing the Epistle last 
mentioned : the blood of a Christian Bishop being 
required as the most acceptable libation upon the 
sacrifices offered to appease the wrath of Apollo 
the destroyer, or to propitiate Apollo the pre- 
server. 

The plague having lately raged with extraor- 
dinary fury over almost the whole of the empire, 
Gallus and Volusianus had struck coins with the 
inscription Apolloni Salutari, and had appointed 



LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CYPRIAN. 209 

sacrifices to be offered to the same deity. In 
these sacrifices the Christians of course refused 
to join ; and thus they offered first to the popu- 
lace, and then to the state, a specific occasion 
of wreaking on them the vengeance of that 
malicious and cruel superstition, which imputed 
to them every evil that afflicted this lower 
world. 

This is a fair example of the way in which the 
Christian Church generally suffered under some 
imputation, as absurd as it was impious and 
malicious; and became the victim first of popular 
rage, and eventually of an authorized and organ- 
ized persecution. Whenever the empire suffered, 
whether from the consequences of natural con- 
vulsions, or from the famine or disease attending 
on unfruitful or unhealthy seasons, or from in- 
vasion by foreign foes, or from the crimes of 
political incendiaries, or from the impudence or 
immorality of emperors, the first effect was 
popular discontent and commotion ; and then 
the hated religion of Jesus was cast out to the 
people, that they might expend on it all their 
rage. If the first occasion of the discontent 
was such as we naturally refer to supernatural 
agencies, as famine or pestilence, so much the 
more directly did the imputation and the penalty 
fall upon the Christians; for they were the avowed 
enemies of the gods, whose vengeance was sup- 
posed to be excited against the empire for har- 

p 



210 LIFE AND TIMES 

bouring them : but if the first evil was evidently 
the work of man, as the burning of a city in sport ; 
no matter, the Christians must still suffer, if the 
popular clamour was excited. Certainly no peo- 
ple had ever so deep an interest in the repose and 
prosperity of a nation, as the Christians had in 
that of the Roman Empire ! 

Its frequent recurrence, and its frightful effects, 
serve to invest this moral phenomenon with great 
interest, and perhaps wdth equally great import- 
ance. Let us see how it has been viewed by some 
of those who lived within its fatal influence. 

TertuUian, in the second century, in his book 
against the Gentiles, having exclaimed against 
the custom of calling the assemblies of Chris- 
tians, bands of lawless men, conspiracies, de- 
clares, that these titles are rather to be given 
to the factious crowd of people who conspire 
against the peace and safety of the good and 
peaceable, inventing against them the most ab- 
surd accusations, and then calling out for their 
destruction : '' If the Tyber has flooded, the city, 
or if the Nile has not flooded the fields ; if the 
earth has trembled, or if the heavens have not 
fallen in showers ; if there be a plague or a pesti- 
lence ; presently there is a cry, ' The Christians 
to the lionM'" 

Origen, in the next age, a contemporary of 
Cyprian, mentions a particular instance in which 
^ Tertul. adv. Gentes, §. 40. vol. iii. p. 70. 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 211 

an earthquake was attributed to the Church. 
'' We know," says he, " that in our own days 
there was an earthquake, which in some places 
was very destructive; so that the impious infidels 
said that the Christians were the cause of the 
calamity, the Churches being incensed at the 
persecutions which they had suffered. And not 
the impious only, but some also, of whom 
better things might have been expected, said 
publicly, that the most terrible earthquakes 
happened on account of the Christians^." In 
short, so great an interest do the heathen seem 
to have attributed to the Christians with heaven^ 
that it had become an old proverb in the days of 
Augustine, '' Non pluit Deus, die ad Christianos." 
Long before the time of that Father, the Gentiles 
had learned to associate with the Church of Christ 
all such occurrences as they looked on as divine 
interpositions ; and if the gods seemed to speak 
in a voice of anger, the Christians were to be the 
sacrifice ; and the destruction of their ^' godless 
superstition" the propitiation : and it mattered 
little whether the gods were the immediate exe- 
cutioners of their own sentence, or whether they 
employed hostile nations as their instrument; for 
we have it on the authority of the same Father, 
that a recent irruption of the barbarians was at- 
tributed to the Christian Religion^. 

'' Orig. in Mat. cap, xxiv. 

^ Augustine De Civ. Dei, ii. 2, 3. 

p2 



212 LIFE AND TIMES 

It is no wonder that the Christians should 
labour to free themselves as well from the odimn 
as from the danger of such absurd imputations ; 
and we find it a point often and most earnestly 
argued in their Apologetics. Arnobius even opens 
his work with a declaration, that he was led to 
compose it by the fact, that many, who seemed 
to fancy themselves wiser than their neighbours, 
declared with all the violence and fanaticism of 
those who pronounce an oracle, that ever since 
the beginning of the Christian religion the world 
had been manifestly declining, the human race 
had suffered new and terrible disasters, and that 
all traces of the visits of Deity to the earth, which 
used to be frequent, had now vanished. But it 
would be endless to cite all the complaints of the 
Christians on this head ; or to recount all the 
arguments by which they refuted the absurdities 
of the heathen, and endeavoured to avert their 
terrible consequences. Let us confine ourselves 
now to a work of Cyprian, in which he touches 
on the same subject, and to which the above 
remarks may give an additional interest. 

The work of Cyprian, to which we allude, is 
the Apologetic Epistle to Demetrian, who seems 
to have been a lawyer at Carthage ; or, })erhaps, 
a professor of Rhetoric, of the same grade in 
which Cyprian himself had been before his con- 
version. Some have supposed that he held a 
high civil station, perhaps even the Proconsulate 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 213 

of Africa ; and that on him, therefore, personally, 
the execution of the penal laws, against which 
Cyprian argues, devolved : but I think that Mo- 
sheim ^ has sufficiently shown that this could not 
be ; and Cyprian's character is cleared from the 
imputation of something almost approaching to 
faction, in speaking of the civil magistrate in 
terms of such marked disrespect as occur towards 
Demetrian in the work before us. That holy 
Bishop would never have been so far forgetful of 
the precepts and example of our blessed Lord and 
his Apostles. 

Whoever and whatever Demetrian was % it 
seems that he had been in the habit of entering 
into theological disputation with Cyprian ; and 
that present circumstances had directed their dis- 
cussions to the real or supposed connexion between 
the rise and progress of Christianity, and the 
anger of the Gods manifested in public calami- 
ties, and those dreadful scourges of the earth, 
pestilence and famine. The rudeness or obsti- 
nacy of Demetrian had determined Cyprian to 
discontinue the verbal discussion of this interest- 
ing and important question ; and to close the 



"^ Mosheim. de rebus ant. Const. Mag. p. 5S2. 

^ No one seems to suspect that Demetrian was only 
an imaginary person^ to whom Cyprian addresses his 
Apology, which is intended for the heathen in general ; but 
is not this in itself probable ? And what difficulty is there 
in the way of such an opinion ? 



214 LIFE AND TIMES 

whole controversy, so far as he and Demetrian 
were concerned, with this Epistle. He himself 
tells us this in the opening paragraph. 

^' You say/' says Cyprian, '' that all the evils 
with which the world is now harassed and shaken, 
are to be attributed to us, and to our refusing to 
worship your Gods. But since you are ignorant 
of the Divine counsel and truth, you must first 
be told that the universe itself has already grown 
old. The earth has lost its pristine vigour, and 
can no longer put forth the energies of youth. 
I need not quote our Scriptures to confirm this 
assertion, nor enter into speculations of my own ; 
for the world itself witnesses its own decline, by 
sufficient tokens. The rains of winter and the 
summer now maintain not their just proportion ; 
the spring smiles not as formerly with the pro- 
mise of fruitfulness, nor does autumn bend be- 
neath so rich a burden. Less marble is dug from 
the exhausted quarries, less gold and silver from 
the impoverished mines. Husbandmen are wanting 
for the fields, sailors for the sea, and soldiers for 
the camp. Innocence and justice are banished from 
the forum and the courts. Society is deprived 
of concord ; the arts are deficient in skill ; mo- 
rality has relaxed her discipline. Can you sup- 
pose that all these things should retain the same 
vigour which they possessed when the world was 
yet young ? Every thing is necessarily attenuated 
as its end approaches. The sun shines more 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 215 

feebly in his setting ; and the moon in her wane 
dwindles to a slender thread. The tree once 
green and stately in its broad shade, withers 
and diminishes to a stump : and the most abun- 
dant fountain is at last exhausted, and pours out 
drop by drop the scanty remainder of its waters. 
This is a law imposed upon all things by the 
Deity, that whatever is born must die ; that 
whatever increases must eventually fall away : 
strong things must decay in strength, and large 
things in magnitude ; and all must eventually 
perish. Do you attribute it to the Christians, 
that every thing is deteriorated with the general 
decay and old age of the universe ; or do you lay 
it to their charge, that life is now terminated within 
one hundred years, instead of extending to eight 
or nine hundred ?" .... 

It is curious to find the Apologist confessing 
the premises, (that is, that the world really was 
then in a worse condition than hitherto,) and 
answering one false deduction from them, by 
another equally false in fact, though in reason 
and piety most just and true. But we shall find, 
by and bye, that it was an opinion frequently 
expressed by Cyprian, and other great and good 
men, that the world was grown old, and near its 
end. Meanwhile we are indemnified for such 
false presumptions and false reasoning, by other 
arguments more to the purpose. For Cyprian 
continues : — 



216 LIFE AND TIMES 

" Know, however, that all these things have 
been predicted ; and know also, that they happen 
not as you ignorantly assume, because we wor- 
ship not your Gods; but because God is not 
worshipped by you. For since He is the Lord 
and Ruler of the universe, and all things obey his 
will, and nothing ever happens but by his hand, 
or his permission, when such events occur as 
demonstrate his indignation, they occur not 
because of us who worship God, but because of 
your iniquities, who will not seek the Lord, nor 
fear him ; who will not desert your vain super- 
stitions, and acknowledge the true religion ; so 
that God who is the same God over all, may by 
all be alone worshipped and supplicated." We 
cannot refrain from observing, with how good a 
grace the Christians, after they had acquired the 
superiority in temporal power, retorted upon the 
heathen their accusation, that they were the 
causes of evil in the world ; since they had not 
been afraid to make the same accusation, while 
they were depressed and persecuted. 

St. Cyprian proceeds to quote several passages 
from the Jewish Scriptures, in which the very same 
judgments are denounced against those who will 
persist in serving false Gods, as the heathens 
then suffered, and imputed to the vengeance of 
the Gods against the Christians. He applies 
these threatenings of the prophet to the present 
time. He tells Demetrian, that the purpose of 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 217 

those judgments in the Divine counsel, was to call 
the heathen to repentance ; yet he adds other 
prophecies, which intimate that the threatened 
judgments should fail in this purpose, and that 
in consequence of the obduracy of the heathen, they 
should still continue. This use of the Prophets 
was perfectly legitimate, even in argument with 
a heathen ; for the Jewish Scriptures were of 
known and acknowledged antiquity ; and in this 
instance fell upon times which supplied an ex- 
ternal evidence of their authority and truth ^ 
The conclusion of Cyprian's argument from these 
denunciations and their fulfilment is as follows. 
" Lo ! scourges fall upon you from above, yet ye 
tremble not. If some such note of the Divine 
vengeance fell not upon men, encouraged by im- 
punity, how much greater would be their boldness 
and impiety !" 

After having at some length exposed the vices 
of the heathen, as calling for the vengeance of 
God, and amply justifying the infliction of all 
those calamities which were attributed to the 
wrath of heaven against the Church, St. Cyprian 

^ Yet Lactantius, with more assumption than sound rea- 
son, says, " Non defiigi hunc laborem, ut implerem ma- 
teriam, quam Cyprianus non executus est in ea oratione, qua 
Demetrianum (sicut ipse ait) oblatrantem, atque obstre- 
pentem veritati, redarguere conatur ; qua materia non est 
usus, ut debuit : non enim Scriptura testimoniis, quam illi 
utique vanam, fictam, eorum arbitriumque putabat; sed argu- 
mentis. et ratione fuerat refellendus." v. 4. 



218 LIFE AND TIMES 

proceeds to the mention of those cruelties with 
which the Christians were every where over- 
whelmed. " It is not enough that you yourselves 
serve not God ; but those who do serve him you 
pursue with impious rage. You neither worship 
God, nor suffer him to be worshipped by others : 
and while you extend indulgence to the worship- 
pers of dumb idols, and images made by the 
hands of men ; nay even of portents and mon- 
sters ; the worship of the true God is alone 
proscribed. The hideous gods of the Egyptians 
are adopted by you, and sacrifices burn on every 
side to apes and crocodiles ; while God must be 
without an altar, at least in public. You dis- 
inherit, you banish, the innocent and just, and 
those whom God loves ; you put them into 
chains and dungeons ; you drag them to the 
beasts, to fire, to the sword. Nor are you satisfied 
with depriving us of life by a quick and simple 
process ; you inflict the most cruel and linger- 
ing death, and are not content even with tortur- 
ing us except by some new invention, and with 
the exercise of a savage ingenuity. How in- 
satiable your cruelty ! How implacable your 
vengeance ! 

'^ Christianity either is or is not a crime. If 
it be a crime, why do you not at once execute 
him who confesses his guilt ? If it be not a 
crime, why do you persecute the innocent ? 
Again : allowing it to be a crime ; those who 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 219 

are implicated in it, but obstinately withhold a 
confession of their guilt, would be the proper 
objects of torture : but we confess, we proclaim, 
our adherence to the Christian cause, and our 
contempt of your gods. Why then are we tor- 
tured, as if we concealed our guilt ? Why this 
attempt upon the infirmity of our bodies ; upon 
the weakness of what is but earthly in us ? 
Rather enter the lists with our minds ; try the 
strength of our reason ; see if you can subvert our 
faith with argument ; and if you must conquer, 
conquer by an appeal to reason." 

Cyprian afterwards shows, that the heathen 
deities were, in truth, not the patrons but the 
clients of their worshippers : needing their sup- 
port against the power and influence of the Chris- 
tians, whose exorcisms would expel them from 
the victims of whom they had taken possession. 

But the Pagan opponents of Christianity might 
remark, that the Christians were not free from 
the same evil which afflicted the nation in gene- 
ral ; and that the misery of persecution was an 
additional suffering which the Church alone en- 
dured ; so that if it was indeed true that the 
pressure of misery was a punishment for impiety, 
the Christians who bore the greatest infliction at 
the hands of the Deity must be accounted the 
greatest criminals. Cyprian answers this objec- 
tion thus*\ 

h To the Christians themselves Cyprian had another answer 
to the same observation. See his work upon the Plague. . 



220 LIFE AND TIMES 

'' He it is who experiences the whole bitterness 
of temporal evil, whose hopes and joys, whose very 
glory, is centered in this world : who hath no 
happy anticipations ; whose very hope is but a deep 
despair. They, on the other hand, whose pro- 
spects, whose joys, whose ambition, are future, feel 
not the pains and disappointments of this life. 
Thus we neither despond nor murmur ; but we 
rather rejoice in the same evils, which overwhelm 
you in affliction and despair : and we are taught 
to believe, that our very sufferings are intended 
to strengthen our faith. Do you reckon then, 
that to us and to you evils are equally evil ? 
Do you not know from your own observation, 
that you and we bear not afflictions in the same 
way ? . . . . Among us, hope then flourishes in its 
full vigour, and faith loses nothing of its con- 
fidence : our mind stands erect, and our virtue is 
unshaken, amid the ruins of a falling world': our 
patience is never wearied, while our souls repose 
themselves still upon God. The Prophet says, 
" Although the fig tree shall not blossom, 
neither shall fruit be in the vines ; the labour of 



' Inter ipsas saeculi labentis ruinas erecta mens est, et 
immobilis virtus, p. 222. Probably Cyprian had in his mind 
the words of Horace, {Carm. iii. 3.) 

Justum virum 

Si fractus illabatur orbis 

Impavidum ferient ruinse. 
But with Cyprian the ruinw are literal, which with Horace 
are figurative : for Cyprian believed the end of the world to 
be at hand. 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 221 

the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no 
meat ; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, 
and there shall be no herd in the stalls : yet I 
will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of 
my salvation." That is, the man of God, and he 
who worships him, cannot be moved by the changes 
and miseries of this world : the vine may fail and the 
olive ; the plain may be brown with the parched 
herbage ; but what is this to Christians, to the 
servants of God, for whom Paradise stands open, 
for whom is prepared the fulness of grace, and 
the abundance of the kingdom of Heaven ? They 
ever rejoice in the Lord, and boast and delight 
themselves in their God ; and while they look 
forward to the gifts and glories of eternity, they 
endure manfully the wrongs and afflictions of 
time : for we who have set aside our natural 
birth, and are born again, and created anew by 
the Spirit, live no longer to the world, but to 
God." 

Then Cyprian declares, that the prayers of 
Christians are constantly offered even for their 
persecutors. He sets before the heathen the 
necessity of repentance ; and declares, that in 
thus doing, he most convincingly displays his 
charity. 

This is a short summary of the contents of 
Cyprian's Epistle to Demetrian on the subject 
of the present persecution, and its occasion as 
pretended by the heathen. I have not thought 



222 LIFE AND TIMES 

it necessary to translate the more intemperate 
language of the Christian Prelate, believing it 
to be rather attributable to the times than to 
the man, or the religion which he professed : 
for it abounds every where in the controversial 
writings to which we shall presently arrive, 
among which those of Cyprian are by no means 
alone faulty. I hope and believe that the latter 
expressions of charity are more consistent with 
the temper of Cyprian, and a more exact 
transcript of his real feelings ; as they certainly 
better agree with the precepts of Christ. Nor 
indeed were any of the divine injunctions of our 
Saviour more exactly obeyed in the early ages 
of the Church, than that which engages us to 
pray for them which despitefully use us and 
persecute us. Dionysius of Alexandria says of 
Gallus on this very occasion ; " He persecuted 
the saints who were praying to God for his 
health and for his glory ; and deprived himself 
of the benefit of their intercessions, while he 
drove the brethren from his dominions ^." 

And if we must give Cyprian credit for the 
sentiments of true charity which he professed 
towards the heathen ; so may we be sure that 

•* Eusebius vii. 1. And see Arnpbius Contra Gentes, 
liber i. p. 1 8. Da veniara Rex Summe tuos persequentibus 
famulos : et quod tujB benignitatis est propriura, fugientibus 
ignosce tui nominis et religionis cultum. Non est mirum si 
ignoraris: majoris est admirationis si sciaris. 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 223 

the expression of firmness^ and even of glorying 
in tribulation, which he attributes to the per- 
secuted Christians, was really found among 
them : for he writes in the same strain, not 
only to the Gentiles, when he would set forth 
the evidences of the faith ; but to Christians 
also, when he would imbue them wdth a proper 
temper, in these trying times. His exhortation 
to martyrdom breathes the spirit rather of an 
Epiniceon, than of a Threnic ode : and the same 
spirit animates his Epistle to the Thybaritani, 
who had repeatedly entreated him to visit them, 
but to whom he excuses himself from the peculiar 
complexion of the times, and the necessity which 
lay upon him of attending his own flock with the 
greater care. He warns them of the coming 
storm ; and tells them that he had received 
such intimations from the Lord concerning its 
violence, as led him to anticipate a persecution 
even more fierce than that under the Decii. 
In this he was certainly deceived ; and it will 
follow that he either misinterpreted a real com- 
munication from heaven, or mistook for such 
a communication the more than ordinarily im- 
pressive emotions of an excited mind ; but that 
he wrote under that impression is all that is 
needed to show the view which he took of 
persecution, in its extremest form, and the 
practical application which he made of it to 
those of his own faith, with the preparation 



2*i4 LIFE AND TIMES 

which he deemed most appropriate for en- 
countering it. 

" A more fierce and dreadful conflict/' says 
he \ '' now awaits us, for which the soldiers of 
Christ ought to prepare themselves with un- 
corrupt faith, and a manly virtue ; drinking to 
this end, day by day, the blood of Christ, that 
for Christ they may be enabled to shed their 
own blood. If we would manifest our willing- 
ness to be with Christ, we ought also so to walk 
as he walked : as St. Paul tells us ; ' we are sons, 
and if sons then heirs, heirs of God, and joint 
heirs with Christ, if we so suffer with him as to 
be glorified with him also °'.' And this we should 
now bear in mind, that none of us may have his 
desires fixed upon this world, now ready to 
perish ; but that all may follow Christ, who 
himself liveth for ever, and giveth life to those 
who are established in the faith of his name." 

After having quoted several warnings of our 
Lord and his Apostles of impending persecutions, 
with the accompanying promises and blessings, 
he proceeds, '' In the midst of persecution, our 
Lord would have us exult and be glad ; for then 
the crowns of faith are bestowed, then the sol- 
diers of God are approved, then heaven is thrown 
open to the martyrs. Nor did we so enroll our 
names in the army of the saints, as to look for 
a peaceable service only, and to deprecate and 
' Ep. Ivi. p. 90. "" Rom. viii. I6, 1 7- 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 225 

refuse the battle : for our Lord Himself, our 
example in humility and patience and long- 
suffering, commenced our course in actual con- 
flict ; Himself beginning that warfare which He 
would have us to wage ; and bearing for us in 
His own person, that which He would have us 
to bear after Him. Remember that He, to whom 
all judgment is committed/has declared, that those 
who confess Him here He will confess before His 
Father; and that He will deny those who deny 

Him And let none be discouraged, dearest 

brethren, at seeing the company of the faithful put 
to flight by fear of persecution, and because he 
sees not the flock assembled in one place, nor 
hears the voice of the shepherd [Bishop]. They 
cannot be collected together who are appointed 
not to kill, but to be killed. And whithersoever, 
in those days, a single disciple shall be driven 
by necessity, being absent from the brethren in 
body, but present with them in spirit, let him 
not be cast into despondency by his flight, nor 
be driven to despair by the solitude of his re- 
treat. He flies not alone, who hath Christ the 
companion of his flight. He is not alone, who 
beareth about with him every where the temple 
of God, and hath God ever within him. And 
if robbers, or wild beasts % or any accident, cut 

° The number of persons thus cut off, always entered 
largely into the account of the havoc made among the 
Christians by persecution. 

Q 



226 LIFE AND TIMES 

him off in his flight, Christ still beholds His 
servants ; and wheresoever, and under what cir- 
cumstances soever, the encounter is endured, 
Christ bestows the reward (which He hath 
promised to give at the resurrection) upon each 
one who dies for the honour of His name, on 
occasion of persecution ^ Nor is that martyr- 
dom devoid of glory, which is not endured 
publicly : the witness and appearance of Him 
who crowns the martyr, being a sufficient token 
of the glory of the mairtyr." 

Then having proposed to them the examples 
of Abel, of Abraham, of the Three Children, 
and of Daniel ; having reminded them of the 
slaughter of the Innocents ; but more especially 
having set before them the unparalleled sufferings 
of Jesus Christ ; he warns them, that the times 
of Antichrist are approaching : and adapting his 
exhortation to their necessities, he proceeds ; 
" Men are trained and exercised for victory 



^ Et persecutionis causa^ pro nominis sui honore mo- 
rienti praemium reddit^ quod daturum se in resurrectione 
promisit. (p. 91.) Cyprian here avoids the promise of 
ifnmediale glory to those who did not suffer actual martyr- 
dom. This is worthy of remark ; for if he speaks of an 
immediale crown to the martyr, but of a crown only at the 
resurrection to the rest of the faithful, how can he dispose 
of the latter except in hades ? of the Catholic doctrine of 
which there are no direct assertions in the works of St. 
Cyprian; so that even these passing indications of his 
opinion are valuable. 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 227 

in the secular games ; and they account it no 
slight accession to their glory, if they receive 
the prize before a crowded assembly, in the 
presence of the Emperor. Lo ! our great, our 
illustrious contest; glorious with the guerdon 
of a heavenly crown ! Lo, how God witnesses 
our struggle ; and looking benignantly on those 
whom He condescends to call His children. Him- 
self rejoices in our victory ! How great the 
happiness in the sight of God to contend : to 
be crowned by the judgment of Christ ! Let us 
arm, my beloved brethren, let us arm for the 
fight ! Let us prepare for the contest with 
a mind and a faith uncorrupted, and with 
devoted valour! Let those who have hitherto 
conquered resume their arms, lest they lose the 
glory which they have nobly won ! Let those 
who have before fallen gird on their harness, 
that they may retrieve their former disgrace. 
Let honour incite the faithful, let remorse impel 
the fallen to the field." 

In marked accordance with this last portion 
of his exhortation, was his own conduct in pre- 
paring his Church for the coming persecution ; 
for besides these general exhortations to mar- 
tyrdom, and other such-like obvious measures, he 
tells Cornelius, in a synodical letter 'i, that 
he had, with the concurrence of forty-one of 
his comprovincial Bishops, re-admitted the peni- 
'^ Ep» liv. 
q2 



2-28 UFE AND TIMES 

tent lapsed to communion. " For we are 
warned/' said he^ '^ by divers signs, to arm 
for the battle, and to summon the whole army 
of Christ to His banners ; and at such a time 
we thought it advisable to place arms in the 
hands of those who had before deserted their 
ranks, though not as incorrigible traitors or 
renegades : and as they had already been 
admitted to penance, so now to admit them 
to the peace of the Church. For now the 
communion of the brethren is as necessary to 
them in their perilous life, as it was heretofore 
at the hour of death ; at which time it was 
always proposed to re-admit them into the 
Church \ And how shall we expect those to pour 
out their blood for Christ, to whom we deny 
the cup of Christ's blood in the Supper of the 
Lord r 

The Epistle to Fortunatus, entitled an Ex- 
hortation to Martyrdom, is in the same strain 
with that just quoted. It is composed after the 
same manner with the Testimonies against the 
Jews ; being little else than citations of apposite 
passages of Scripture, arranged under separate 
heads. Cyprian expresses his motive for this 
arrangement of the subject under the following 
singular figure. '' The work thus performed, 

■■ The reader will remember^ that on a former occasion the 
approach of the unhealthy season was anticipated by a 
similar indulgence, for a parallel reason. 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 229 

will be more readily adapted to every one's use. 
If I had presented you with a garment ready cut 
out, finished for myself, it would be my own 
garment, though for another's use, and it might 
be but ill fitted to his individual stature and 
bodily form. But now, I have sent you the 
fleece itself, and the purple die from that Lamb, 
by w^hom we are redeemed, and in whom we live ; 
and from this you can yourself form your gar- 
ment according to your own will and conve- 
nience : and you will feel greater pleasure in the 
use of your own appropriate vesture. You will 
also be able to supply the like materials to others, 
that they too may possess the materials of a 
garment after their own taste ; and all, throwing 
the robes of Christ over their former nakedness, 
may appear clothed with the garments of celes- 
tial grace ^" 

As Cyprian has himself prefaced this Epistle 
with a syllabus of its contents, I shall present 
this to the reader. 

" In exhorting the brethren, and preparing 
them with the fortitude of virtue and of faith 
for the confession of their Lord, and Jn arming 
for the conflict of suflering and of death, it is 
necessary, in the first place, to declare, that those 
idols which man makes for himself are no Gods ; 
for neither are those things that are made 
greater than he who designed and made them, 
^ Page 262. 



2S0 LIFE AND TIMES 

nor can those things which perish within their 
very temples, unless they are preserved by the care 
of man, afford any protection or preservation: 
neither are the elements to be worshipped^ which 
are appointed by the providence of God, for the 
service of man. 

'' When the idols have been destroyed, and 
the true position of the elements declared, we 
must show that God alone is to be worshipped. 

^' Then the threatenings of God against those 
who sacrifice to idols are to be denounced. 

'' And then, the difficulty with which God 
pardons idolaters should be shown ; and that He 
is so indignant against the worship of idols, that 
He has appointed that all who are guilty of per- 
suading others to that sin are to be put to death, 

*' After these things we must add. That we 
who are redeemed and quickened by Christ's 
blood, are bound to prefer Christ before all other 
things ; because He, too, preferred nothing to us, 
but on our account preferred evil to good, poverty 
to wealthy servitude to dominion, death to im- 
mortality ; that we, while we suffer, might, on 
the contrary, prefer the riches and delights of 
paradise, to the misery and vanity of the world, 
an eternal power and kingdom to temporal ser- 
vitude, immortality to death, God and Christ to 
the Devil and Antichrist. 

*^ They, too, who have been snatched from the 
Jaws of the devil, and delivered from the snares 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 231 

of this worlds must be warned lest, beginning to 
perceive themselves in difficulties and dangers, 
they desire to return again to the world, and so 
perish in their former delusion ; and they must 
be encouraged rather to persevere in faith and 
virtue, and in the perfection of every grace, that 
they may attain to the palm and the crown of 
victory. 

'^ For to this very end we are persecuted and 
afflicted, that is, that we may be proved ; and 
the injuries and tortures inflicted by persecutors 
are not to be objects of terror; for God is more 
powerful to save, than the Devil to destroy. 

" And lest any should be troubled above mea- 
sure and affi'ighted by the difficulties and perse- 
cutions which surround us in this life, it ought to 
be proved, that it was foretold that we should be 
hated by the world, and persecuted ; so that the 
truth of God may be attested by these very things, 
and the assurance therefore of the coming reward, 
which is built on the promise of the same God, 
may be increased : while at the same time it is 
apparent, that no new thing occurs in this to 
the Christians ; since, from the beginning of the 
world, the good have ever suffered under the 
oppression and violence of the wicked. 

'^ In the last place, we may enlarge upon the 
hope and the reward of the just and of martyrs, 
when the troubles and persecutions of this life 
are ended ; being assured, that the reward of our 



23-2 LIFE AND TIMES 

sufferings hereafter will far outweigh whatever 
misery we endured in the martyrdom itself ^" 

Such is the strain in which Cyprian exhorts 
his brethren in Christ to the constancy of con- 
fessors and martyrs, and such the preparation 
which he made for the conflict. He was, indeed, 
mistaken in looking for a more fierce persecution 
than that from which the Church had lately 
emerged ; but the event which happily contra- 
dicted his anticipation, diminishes not the glory 
of his preparation. 

We are not, however, excused from the mention 
of confessors and martyrs under Gallus and Volu- 
sianus. For in Rome, the magistrates, intending 
by one deadly blow to annihilate the Church, 
directed their attacks against Cornelius, the 
Bishop of that city. But whatever might be 
the method of attack, the ravagers of the fold 
found that the flock preferred death to apostacy ; 
and that they would rather be united in suffering, 
than flee from their shepherd in his danger ; for not 
only those who had always been constant, but even 
many of the lapsed, collected round Cornelius, 
now that he had borne the especial mark of 
the persecutors' malignity". Cornelius himself 
was banished to Centumsellas, whether alone, or 
with what number of his faithful adherents, does 
not appear. Cyprian wrote a congratulatory 
Epistle "^ to him in his banishment, greatly com- 
' pp. 262, 263. " Ep Iv. * Ep. Ivii. 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 233 

mending, and as a member of the same body 
exulting in, his courage and constancy ; and 
declaring the benefit which the alacrity and 
firmness of the Church in Rome, in baffling 
persecution, would afford, and indeed had af- 
forded, to the whole body of Christians. Cyprian 
concludes his Epistle to his brother saint, with 
a pious determination and request, that which- 
ever of them, he or Cornelius, should first be 
taken from the Church on earth, would continue 
his prayers to the Father for him who remained. 
An exact parallel to the affecting petition of the 
truly catholic martyr Ridley to Bradford, his 
fellow-sufferer, shortly before the execution of 
the latter. '' Brother Bradford," says Ridley, 
" so long as I shall understand that thou art on 
thy journey," his journey, that is, to execution, 
'' by God's grace, I shall call upon our heavenly 
Father, for Christ's sake, to set thee safely home ; 
and then, good father, speak you, and pray for 
the remnant that are to suffer for Christ's sake, 
according to what thou then shalt know more 
clearly." 

The presentiment of Cyprian here apparent of 
the approaching end of his earthly intercourse 
with Cornelius w^as verified : for that Prelate died 
at the place of his banishment, and, as we collect 
with probability from some casual expressions, a 
martyr in the most rigorous sense of that word, 
as he certainly was virtually a martyr. This, how- 



234 LIFE AND TIMES 

ever, is not quite indisputable, and at any rate 
the manner of his death is unknown. He died 
A. D. 252, and on the 14th of September ; unless 
the Roman Breviary, being published by Papal 
authority and received by all the Bishops within 
the Roman Obedience, is to be believed before 
an historical testimony, in which case St. Corne- 
lius and Cyprian both suffered on the 16th of 
September. 

After an interval of a few days, Lucius was 
chosen Bishop of Rome in the place of Cornelius : 
and he too soon fell a victim to the rage of per- 
secution ; being first banished, with several of 
his brethren, but soon after permitted or obliged 
to return. And we suppose with about the same 
degree of evidence upon w^hich we arrive at the 
same conclusion respecting Cornelius, that he 
suffered martyrdom. Cyprian, in his Epistle to 
Lucius y after his return to Rome, while he con- 
gratulates him on his confession, intimates that 
it was perhaps the intention of the Lord in order- 
ing his return, that he should be crowned with 
greater glory to himself, and greater benefit to 
the Church, in the presence of his own people. 
Whether this intimation had any other founda- 
tion than the pious and characteristic sentiment 
of St. Cyprian, or whether it was justified by the 
event, is not certain. Mosheim says% that he' 
could make it appear that neither Cornelius nor 
y Ep. Iviii. * De Rebus Chris, p. 529* 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 235 

Lucius suffered actual martyrdom; he confesses, 
however, that the opposite opinion is upheld by 
no contemptible authority. 

Some expressions in Cyprian's gratulatory 
Epistles to Cornelius and Lucius lead us to 
enquire, how far he held persecution to be a test 
of the truth of the persecuted party. After 
having expressed his joy, that not only those who 
had before adhered to the faith, but that some 
also who had formerly lapsed, had joined Corne- 
lius in his confession ; so that the Church was 
rather united than scattered by this attack upon 
it ; he continues : " What says Novatian to these 
things, dearest brother ? Does he yet lay down 
his error ? or rather, as is usual with men so 
infatuated as he is, does his rage increase, at the 
sight of our blessed prosperity : and does the 
madness of dissention and fanaticism gather 
strength among his party, in proportion as the 
glory of an union in faith and charity is advanced 
among us ? . . . . Does he yet perceive who is the 
true priest of God ; which is the Church and 
house of Christ ; who are the servants of God, 
against whom the Devil expends his rage ; who 
are the Christians, whom Antichrist opposes ? For 
Satan pursues not those whom he has already 
seduced to subjection ; nor does he labour to 
extirpate those, whom he has made his own 
servants. The deadly foe of the Church passes by, 
as already conquered and captive, those whom 



236 LIFE AND TIMES 

he hath seduced from the pale of the Church ; 
and directs all his efforts against those in whom, 
he perceives that Christ dwells V 

And again^ in the next Epistle to Lucius, 
" We perceive, dearest brother, and with our 
whole heart and understanding consent to the 
wisdom and goodness of the counsel of God, 
whence arose this sudden persecution, and to 
what end the whole power of the state raged 
against the Church of Christ, and the blessed 
Bishop and Martyr Cornelius, and you all ; even 
that THE Lord might confound and crush the 
heretics, by showing which is the Church, which 
is the sole Bishop chosen and appointed with the 
Divine sanction, who are the priests associated 
with the Bishop in the sacerdotal functions, which 
is the true flock of Christ, one in fellowship and 
love ; who they are whom the enemy would 
destroy, and who are they whom the Devil would 
spare, as his own children. For whom doth the 
enemy of Christ persecute and oppose, but the 
army and the soldiers of Christ ? Those who are 
already prostrate in heresy, and become his own, 
he passes by in contempt ; but those whom he 
beholds erect^ them he seeks to throw down^." 

From such passages we should almost judge, 
that Cyprian inclined to the belief, that all here- 
tics are exempt from persecution, that the true 
Church is alone subject to this expression of the 
' * Ep. Ivii. p. 95. - ^ Ep. Iviii. p. 97. 



( 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 237 

Devil's enmity : in other words, that the enduring 
of persecution is a certain and sufficient mark of 
truth ; which would be, to say the least, a very 
strong expression of a proposition, which is true 
only in a mitigated form. Nor are the passages 
just quoted the only ones in which Cyprian 
seems to express the same opinion ; and to apply 
it in its practical result, as a means of separating 
between truth and error : for we have found him 
giving it as one of the divine warranties of his 
own Episcopate, that he was obnoxious to popu- 
lar and heathen fury, and more than once called 
for to the lions. 

There is something very plausible in this method 
of reasoning; and it proceeds upon opinions which 
will always have advocates, among those who 
find support from them, under the peculiar cir- 
cumstances of their Church or sect. Nor yet 
are such opinions to be at once discarded ; only 
they must be kept within due bounds, and not 
suffered to go quite to that length in theory, to 
which those who are, or fancy themselves, perse- 
cuted may be disposed to carry them ; nor to be 
practically applied quite so unsparingly as all 
who find it convenient to hold them may wish. 
For persecution may be found sometimes, as 
history has evinced now, whatever it may have 
done in Cyprian's time, with a sect or a heresy ; 
and may even be pretended where it does not 
exist: and so it may be brought to bear with 



*2oS LIFE AND TIMES 

equal force upon opposite sides of a theological 
discussion, and sometimes with equal truth by 
both ; that is, it may possess no authority at 
all. 

It is just so with miracles, another sign of the 
true Church, which however may be counterfeited 
by the cunning and villany, and possibly by the 
cunning and zeal, of man ; and may form a part 
of the illusory art even of other powers^. Mira- 
cles were pretended on both sides in a late 
controversy within the Romish pale : and the 
pretence to them has been revived before us, by 
the deluded and deluding followers of Edward 
Irving. Now in all these cases, we will not 
admit the miracles, real or pretended, as a test 
of truth ; and in the former case it is a matter 
of demonstration, that they could not divinely 
approve opposing tenets. And though these were 
also (probably) cases of pretended miracles, there 
is no reason to doubt (nay rather there is the 
highest ground for believing) that error itself 
may be accompanied with the deceitful sign of 
lying wonders. 

But I mention this only that we may return 
to the question of persecution with the additional 
light gained from a parallel case. A claim to 
the merit of the persecuted may be advanced by 
those who suffer no persecution at all ; but who 
so confuse things that differ, as to construe even 
' See Deut* xiii. and Vincentius Lirinensis, cap. xv. 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 039 

punishment for secular crimes into suffering for 
religion, and for theological opinions : or they 
may construe suffering for some dogma, which 
may be in itself true, but which has no connexion 
with religion, into suffering for an article of 
faith. And from the moment that any party 
of religionists has become involved in any suf- 
ferings, for any cause, there is a very strong 
temptation, (a temptation which I fear has 
seldom been effectually resisted,) to look upon 
and to adduce that suffering as a ground of 
boasting the exclusive verily of their faith, on 
the evidence of persecution. Even those branches 
of the Catholic Church which have fallen under 
depressing and painful circumstances, have been 
deceived into this erroneous judgment. In Scot- 
land, for instance, the members of the Catholic 
and Apostolic Church (there to the present day, 
to the shame of our nation be it said, left to 
struggle under the difficulties and opprobrium 
of dissent from an adverse establishment ; and, 
in former times, to the still greater disgrace of 
our nation, involved in still greater and more 
positive difficulties) : — in Scotland, I say, the 
members of the true Church, and the adherents 
of the established sect, are equally fond of ad- 
ducing the persecution which they have suffered 
at different times, as a plain and popular, and 
very exciting and effective test of the truth of 
their several communions. Now here again, it 



240 LIFE AND TIMES 

is demonstrative that both cannot be right, even 
supposing both to be persecuted, in the proper 
acceptation of the word, and the only acceptation 
in which it can be taken for any thing which is 
a test of religious truth. But ihe truth is, that 
neither is or has been persecuted. As regards 
the Catholics, who have the truth on their side, 
by a higher evidence than they themselves could 
elicit from a persecution though real, it is clear, 
I think, that what they hold to be persecution, 
was the rendering them obnoxious to a severe 
system of political pains and penalties, in them- 
selves, it is true, excessive, and continued longer 
than was needful, but still directed against 
political opinions and practices which were 
associated with religion by themselves ; and 
which the existing government was obliged, 
for its own security, to condemn as criminal. 
Admitting their high principle, (which I do 
willingly and with admiration,) still they were 
martyrs, if we must give them that name, to 
their loyalty, and not to their religion : and 
their suffering would go to prove, if it go to 
prove any thing at all, not that Episcopacy 
is a characteristic of the Church Catholic, which 
is the use that they would make of it; but that the 
Stuarts were unjustly deprived of their kingdom, 
and ought at all hazard, and at any time, to be 
restored to it. 

As for the martyrs (so called) of the Presby- 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 241 

terians, they are the only martyrs from the 
beginning of Christianity to the present day, 
who have died with swords in their hands. In 
fact, they were slaughtered insm'gents, who sold 
their lives as dearly as they could. They w^ere 
wrong in every thing almost in which men can 
be WTong, except only that they were conscien- 
tious in their errors. The example is striking ; 
for these, too, though not martyrs, either in 
patience, or in the truth of that doctrine and 
discipline in behalf of w^hich (and not as its 
supporters, but as its inventors) they took arms 
and died, are yet as much vaunted to this day 
in Scotland, as are in England the meek and 
blessed martyrs and confessors in the Marian 
persecution, who died to witness against errors 
which the Scotch also have thrown off; and as 
our not less illustrious martyrs. King Charles 
and Archbishop Laud, who died for the verities 
which they continue to deny. 

And it is farther to be remarked, that the 
very party which is in fact the persecuting, may 
be the one to complain most loudly, and to boast 
their sufferings for the truth. We have various 
forms and degrees of this self-deception in the 
world. There is a tendency among some to 
declare, that they are accounted the very ofFscour- 
ing of all things, and to protest themselves an 
afflicted and despised race of men, because they 
and they alone among their countrymen hold the 



242 LIFE AND TIMES 

truth : but meanwhile do they not themselves 
put in exercise a most cruel spiritual persecution, 
while they declare all others reprobate, and bear 
themselves towards them as towards aliens and 
heathens. And again ; at this moment, there is 
here a combination of all parties against the 
Church of England, which amounts to the spirit 
of persecution, and in some respects and places 
to the actual violence of persecution : and yet 
she is every where assailed by the very parties thus 
in league against her, as a persecuting Church. 
In a word, it is now with us as it was in the days 
of King Charles the Martyr, though (thank 
God !) in a very much mitigated degree, to 
whom Laud writes in the dedication of his Con- 
ference with Fisher. '' One thing more let me 
be bold to observe to your Majesty in particular, 
concerning your great charge in the Church of 
England. She is in hard condition. She pro- 
fesses the ancient Catholic faith, and yet the 
Romanist condemns her for novelty in her doc- 
trine. She practises Church government as it 
hath been in use in all ages, and all places, 
where the Church of Christ hath been esta- 
blished both in and since the days of the 
Apostles, and yet the separatist condemns her 
for Antichristianism in her discipline. The plain 
truth is, she is between these two factions, and 
unless your Majesty look to it, to whose trust she 
is committed, she will be ground to powder, to 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 243 

an irreparable dishonour and loss to this king- 
dom. And it is very remarkable, that while both 
these press hard upon the Church of England, 
both of them cry out against persecution, like 
froward children, who scratch, and kick, and 
bite, and yet cry out all the while as if they 
were killed." Of course I am not adducing 
this in proof of the Apostolicity or Catholicity 
of our Church : I thank God that we want not 
the testimony of the enmity of our opponents, 
though it may be as strong an one as they 
can bestow : but only to show the absurdity, 
yet possibility, of the persecutors, if either party 
be persecuted, making persecution the test of 
truth. 

None of these instances, however, exactly 
touches the point of w^hich Cyprian speaks, 
which is the suffering for the cause of Christ 
under the attacks of Heathen assailants ; and 
it is certainly possible that persecution may 
afford a more just criterion of the truth of those 
who suffer, w^hen inflicted by heathens upon those 
who have the name and profess the faith of 
Christ, than when employed by one party of 
professed Christians against another. But in 
this case, too, history will not bear out the 
propositions of St. Cyprian, if taken in their 
most rigid sense, and applied without limitation. 
Among the Arians, for instance, w^e find men 
who have suffered together with the Church 

r2 



244 LIFE AND TIMES 

Catholic ; for under Julian the Apostate, who 
was too hostile to the very name and pretensions 
of Christianity to distinguish between a sect and 
the true Church, the followers of Arius were 
involved in the common misfortune. 

I think, then, that it must be admitted, that 
although God has employed persecution from with- 
out more frequently to purify and confirm and 
render illustrious the faith of the true Church, 
than to punish the iniquity of heretics and sepa- 
ratists ; and that He has also, on the whole, made 
so marked a distinction in this respect, between 
the body of Christ, and all those who have broken 
off from that body, as to surround the former 
with a visible glory from above, while the latter 
are left in their darkness, or in their self-assumed 
light ; yet still, the mere fact of suffering, under 
the name of siffering for the truth as it is in 
Jesus, is not sufficient to prove one a member of 
the Church of Christ, any more than the fact of 
suffering for the dogmas of a sect is sufficient 
to confirm the truth of those dogmas. 

And this was, I imagine, the more solid con- 
viction of Cyprian himself; for he seems to me 
to lay much more stress upon his sound reason- 
ing, that there is no confession or martyrdom out 
of the Church, though there may be those who 
siffer and die; than upon his more oratorical 
assumption, that none but the faithful would be 
put to the test, or none but they would endure 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 245 

it. Indeed, so far from collecting from a broad 
view of Cyprian's works, that none but Catholics 
ever did, or in his opinion ever could, suffer and 
die for the name of Christ ; we shall rather 
collect from such passages as those w^hich I shall 
presently adduce, that some at least, if not many, 
had actually thus suffered and died ; and that 
his repeated and earnest references to the posi- 
tion in which such persons stood in respect of 
the Church, arose out of the necessity which 
their existence at least, and their pretensions, if 
not their number, produced. 

Thus, speaking of Nicostratus, he says% '^ This 
deserter and renegade boasts himself a confessor : 
whereas he can neither be nor be called a confessor, 
who has denied the Church of Christ." Again, 
at the conclusion of the Epistle to Antonianus : 
" apostates and deserters, or the adversaries of 
Christ, who sow discord in His Church, cannot 
be admitted by any Apostolic rule to the peace 
of the Church, no not though they be slain for 
the name of Christ, while they are yet without : 
since they have maintained neither the spirit nor 
the unity of the Church \" And even in the pas- 
sage immediately following that before quoted, 
in which he exults over Novatian as having 
escaped persecution, Cyprian says, ^^ Even if one 
of such a party should fall into the hands of the 
enemy, there is still no sufficient ground for his 
» Ej>. xlix. p. 63. '' E/7. lii. p. 75. 



246 LIFE AND TIMES 

boasting himself a confessor of the Christian name; 
since it is plain, that if such persons are ever put 
to death out of the Church, they receive not the 
crown of their fidelity, but the meet reward of 
their perfidy ; nor can they, whom we behold 
separated from the household of faith by their 
reckless discord, be accounted among those who 
continue of one mind in the house of God^" The 
very event which Cyprian here admits as possible, 
and against the pernicious effects of which he 
provides an antidote, did actually occur ; for 
Socrates tells us in his Ecclesiastical History*^, that 
Novatian, who escaped, indeed, the persecution in 
which Cornelius and Lucius perished, suffered 
death under Valerian. 

In a word, (for we are forced to take refuge at 
last in this safe harbour,) no popular test of the 
truth — such as the endurance of persecution, 
though it may appeal ever so strongly to man's 
affections ; or pretended miracles, though they 
may take his reason almost by storm — no such 
test can be safely trusted alone, however valuable 
it may be in its right place, and however fascinat- 
ing its use : but after all we must apply a more 
severe rule of judging between catholic verity and 
the fancies and vagaries of sectaries and fanatics. 
We must listen to no reasoning, however sup- 
ported, which tends to shake our faith in that 
which has been the doctrine of the first days of 
^ Ep. Ivii. p. 95. '^ Lib. iv. 28. 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 247 

the Church, and has been ever held as the faith 
of the Apostles : our eyes must be closed against 
all portents, our ears must be stopped against 
all boastings and lamentations, which would 
subvert that primitive doctrine ; or else we 
shall be in danger of falling victims to those 
delusions, by which Satan would deceive, if it 
were possible, the very elect ; and from which 
it is only possible that they can be saved by the 
application of those means which God has com- 
mitted to them, to prove all things, that they 
may hold fast that which is good. 

It can scarcely be necessary to remark, that 
the questions here touched are all and altogether 
different from that which relates to persecution 
as a sign of the truth of Christianity itself, in 
opposition to heathenism and infidelity. Upon 
this subject St. Cyprian expresses himself most 
excellently at the close of his tract on the Vanity 
of Idols, where he is stating the evidences of his 
religion to the Gentiles. ^' The followers of 
Jesus," says he% '' are put to the torture, are 
crucified, and suffer all manner of indignities, 
that their sincerity may be tried to the utter- 
most. Suffering, which is the test of truth, is 
inflicted on them, that Christ the Son of God, 
on whom they believe as the Author of eternal 
life to man, may be proclaimed not only with the 
voice of the preacher, but with the testimony also 
e De Idoli Van. p. 228. 



248 LIFE AND TIMES 

of martyrs." This reasoning has all the force of 
demonstration, when it is considered, that those 
who first suffered as Christians, could not possibly 
be deceived as to the truth of those events, in 
attestation of which they shed their blood : nor 
would it so much as shake this evidence, if some 
few isolated individuals had been found willing 
to maintain an obstinate adherence to known 
falsehood before the face of torture and of death : 
such single exceptions of a general rule may 
afford psychological phenomena of great interest 
and importance ; but can never shake those 
foundations of human testimony, on which we 
may and must build as unquestionably secure. 

Thus in a history of these times, and of the 
persecution under Gallus, we have found leisure 
to speculate upon those subjects which perse- 
cution naturally suggests : as Cyprian himself, 
though he had anticipated a more violent attack 
upon the Church than that which they had ex- 
perienced from the Decii, found himself now, 
however, at liberty to continue among his people, 
and to encourage them with many works, and 
constant pastoral care ; whereas in the former 
case he had been driven from his charge by the 
more violent rage of the persecutors. In writing 
of the Decian persecution, we were chiefly occu- 
pied in detailing instances of suffering and con- 
stancy ; but now we have found time and oppor- 
tunity to turn our eyes to the attendants of 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 249 

persecution, to its usual causes and consequences : 
to the feelings, doctrines, and encouragements, 
rather than the actual sufferings, of martyrs and 
confessors : and to the calm reasoning of Chris- 
tians upon the passing events : to the way in 
which men were prepared for the conflict, rather 
than the way in which they actually endured it : 
to the crown of martyrdom, towards which their 
hopes were directed, rather than the instruments 
of torture and of death. 



CHAPTER XI. 

THE P1A6UE RAGES AT CARTHAGE, CYPRIAN's TRACT DE 

MORTALITATE. THE EXPECTATION OF THE LAST DAY IX 

THE EARLY CHURCH : GIBBON's USE OF IT. CYPRIAN's 

OPINION ON THE TIME, PERSON, AND CHARACTER OF 
ANTICHRIST. 



The persecution at length ceased, but the 
plague, which had afforded to the heathen the 
first pretence of persecution, still remained ; a 
more destructive, but a less cruel, enemy; for cer- 
tainly the Christians must have felt that it was 
better to fall into the hands of the Lord, than 
into the hands of men. This scourge of the 
nations afforded an additional and most im- 
portant and interesting occasion of the display of 
the character of St. Cyprian, as a Christian and 
as a Bishop. 

The symptoms of this terrible disease Cyprian 
has himself described; they seem to have in- 
cluded a fearful state of exhaustion, with fever, 
and mortifying and putrid sores '^ : and Pontius 

* Quod nunc corporis vires solutus in fluxum venter evis- 
cerate quod in fauciuni vulnera conceptus medullitus ignis 



LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CYPRIAN. 251 

tells US, that this terrible pestilence swept away 
numbers daily, sometimes carrying off whole 
households. The carcases of men lay in the 
streets, and there were none to bury them ; the 
uninfected deserted their sick relatives, or even 
turned them out to die unattended in the streets. 
Yet those who had not courage to attend the 
living, or to bury the dead, summoned resolu- 
tion to rob those who were in the extremity 
of sickness ; and the fears of the Gentile inha- 
bitants of the great city of Carthage were only 
surpassed by their cupidity. In short, all was 
consternation, misery, and crime. There is no 
reason to suspect Pontius of exaggeration here ; 
indeed, exaggeration of such horrors would scarce 
be possible. Gibbon gives an appalling account 
of the miseries of these times. " Our habits of 
thinking," says he, " so fondly connect the order 
of the universe with the fate of man, that this 
gloomy period of history has been decorated with 
inundations, earthquakes, uncommon meteors, 
preternatural darkness, and a crowd of prodigies, 
fictitious or exaggerated. But a long and 

exaestuatj quod assiduo vomitu iiitestina quatiuntur, quod 
oculi vi sanguinis inardescunt, quod quorundam vel pedes 
vel aliquEe membrorum partes contagio morbidae putredinis 
amputantur, quod per jacturas et damna corporum prorum- 
pente languors vel debilitatur incessus, vel auditus obstruitur, 
vel coecatur aspectus. De Mortaliiaie, p. 232. 



•252 LIFE AND TIMES 

general famine was a calamity of a more serious 
kind. It was the inevitable consequence of 
rapine and oppression, which extirpated the pro- 
duce of the present, and the hope of future, 
harvests. Famine is always followed by epide- 
mical diseases, the effect of scanty and unwhole- 
some food. Other causes must, however, have 
contributed to the furious plague, which from the 
year 250, to the year 265, raged without inter- 
mission in every province, every city, and almost 
every family of the Roman empire. During some 
time five thousand persons died daily in Rome ; 
and many towns that had escaped the hands of 
barbarians, were entirely depopulated. 

" We have the knowledge of a very curious 
circumstance, of some use, perhaps, in the melan- 
choly calculation of human calamities. An exact 
register was kept at Alexandria of all the citizens 
entitled to receive the distribution of corn. It 
was found, that the ancient number of those 
comprised between the ages of forty and seventy, 
had been equal to the whole sum of claimants, 
from fourteen to fourscore years of age, who 
remained alive after the reign of Gallus. Ap- 
plying this authentic fact to the most correct 
tables of mortality^ it evidently proves, that 
above half the people of Alexandria had pe- 
rished ; and could we venture to extend the 
analogy to the other provinces, we might suspect, 
that war, pestilence, and famine, had consumed. 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 253 

in a few years, the moiety of the human 
species ^." 

The courage and the charity of Cyprian shone 
with resplendent lustre, in this gloom of misery 
and vice. Assembling his people as here- 
tofore, he inculcated, with the authority of a 
Bishop, the highest moral lesson, enforced with 
the most powerful and religious motives. He 
exhorted them to a proper care of the sick, and 
to a pious sepulture of the dead ; and that not 
only of their own numbers, but even of the very 
Gentiles who were taking occasion of the plague 
to persecute them : thus did he illustrate the 
divine precept of our Lord, by which we are 
taught to love our enemies, to repay evil with 
good, and to bless those who persecute us ; and 
thus did he exhort them to imitate the mercy of 
God, Who maketh his sun to rise on the evil and 
on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on 
the unjust. If the heathen had heard him ad- 
dressing such lessons to his people, says Pontius, 
surely they must have been converted. 

The consequence of this care on the part of the 

pastor, was manifested in the conduct of the flock. 

Provision was made for the visiting of the sick, and 

for the burying of the dead ; and those who had 

no money to give, gave their labour. That pious 

care of the Christians for their departed brethren, 

b Gibbon's Decline and Fall, vol. i. p. 455. end of 
chap. X. 



254 LIFE AND TIMES 

which SO forcibly struck the Apostate Julian, was 
here extended, under the most distressing and 
appalUng circumstances, not to their brethren 
only, but to their very enemies. How great 
effect does this give to the severity with which 
Cyprian upbraids the heathen, in his Epistle to 
Demetrian, with their desertion of the dead and 
of the dying ! ^^ You cry out," says he, " against 
the plague and the pestilence, while by that very 
plague and pestilence the crimes of individuals 
are either detected or increased ; while pity 
is withheld from the infected, and avarice and 
robbery gloat over the dead. The very persons 
who dare not perform the pious obsequies of the 
departed, are rash in their schemes of plunder : 
they flee from funerals, that they may rush upon 
the spoil ; and it would almost seem that the 
wretched sufferers are left alone in their sickness, 
lest perchance they should escape death, if they 
were attended. For he surely manifests a desire 
for another's death, who scarce waits for it, that 
he may seize upon his wealth ^" 

There were other considerations, however, to 
be urged upon his people by Cyprian at this 
juncture, besides those which excited them to 
charity and good works : they were to be for- 
tified against personal afflictions; against the 
fear of death, and against immoderate sorrow 
for departed friends. Accordingly, the watchful 
<^ Page 219. 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 255 

Bishop prepared a discourse on the present 
mortality, which was probably delivered from 
his own lips to his assembled people, as well 
as distributed among them as a written tract : 
and he expressly declares, that this was done 
in obedience to repeated warnings from Heaven. 
In this discourse he urges much at length, and 
with characteristic eloquence, the Scriptural 
encouragement to patience in suffering, and 
the reasons which a Christian has to look on 
death as a blessing, though it come in the 
most terrible form. To that which is equally 
applicable to all times of affliction in this dis- 
course, I will not advert : but I may mention, 
that among the causes of the impatience which 
Cyprian had to contend against, was the fear 
of some, that they might be deprived, by the 
progress of the plague, of the honour of martyr- 
dom. He reminds such persons, that martyrdom 
is not to be accounted as a property even of the 
best and most courageous Christians, nor to be 
reckoned upon as if in every man's power ; since 
it is in a double sense a free gift of God, Who 
both places us in the way to it, and enables us 
to endure it ; and both by an exercise of His 
free grace. He encourages them to believe, 
moreover, that God, Who trieth the hearts and 
reins, would, if they were really prepared for 
martyrdom, bestow on them the reward of 
martyrs, though they died not under the sw^ord 



256 LIFE AND TIMES 

of the magistrate, but beneath His own fatherly 
visitation : for if, in vengeance. He rejected 
Cain's offering, anticipating the crime not yet 
perpetrated ; much more could He, in mercy, 
accept them, though the noble act which they 
meditated was not yet accomplished, and might 
perchance be placed out of their power. 

He relates an anecdote of a brother Bishop, 
who was at the point of death, and clinging still 
tenaciously to life, prayed earnestly for a short 
respite. While he was thus praying, and while 
death was closing upon him, a youth stood 
beside him, of an aspect noble and heavenly, 
and such as mortal eyes could scarce behold, 
except those that were about to open upon 
another world. With an indignant voice and 
manner, he cried aloud to the dying man ; 

Do YE SHRINK FROM SUFFERING ; ARE YE UNWIL- 
LING TO depart; what would ye that I SHOULD 

DO FOR you"^ ? This rebuke, says Cyprian, could 
not have been intended chiefly for the dying 
Bishop, to whom it had already ceased to be 
of use as a practical admonition ; but it was 
uttered that he might publish it to those whom 
he should leave behind, and that we might apply 
it to our spiritual benefit. 

There is another topic often touched by St. 
Cyprian, in this and other works, to which I 

•^ Pati timetis, exire non vultis, quid faciam vobis? De 
Morlalifate, p. 234. 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 



257 



shall advert at greater length ; because the 
prevalence of the opinion which we shall find 
him expressing, is made by Gibbon one of the 
natural causes of the rapid increase of Chris- 
tianity, in a discussion which is so conducted 
as to interpose secondary causes to our per- 
ception of the first divine cause, to which rather 
they ought to direct our attention. 

We have already seen Cyprian reasoning with 
Demetrian, from a presumption that the world 
was rapidly approaching its end : and this belief, 
from which he there gathered topics of reproof 
to the heathen, he here employs to animate and 
encourage his brethren in Christ, in their present 
transitory struggle with afflictions. " The king- 
dom of God, brethren most beloved, has begun 
its nearer approaches. The reward of life, the 
fruition of eternal bliss, perpetual security, and 
the enjoyment of paradise lately forfeited, are 
dawning upon us, as the world passes away. 
What place, then, is there left, for fear and 
trepidation ^" And again, having inculcated the 
general lesson of resignation at the death of 
friends, he adds ; '' this submission, which ought 
always to be the temper of the servants of God, 
is now much more incumbent on them, while 
the world is hastening to destruction, in the 
midst of accumulated evils. We who have seen 
terrible events, and know that yet more terrible 
* De Mort. p. 229. 
s 



258 LIFE AND TIMES 

are impending, should reckon it our privilege 
and happiness to escape the more quickly. If 
your house shook, and threatened every moment 
to bury you beneath its trembling walls, would 
you not rush out of it as soon as possible ? 
If you were on a voyage, and the winds and 
the swelling waves threatened destruction to your 
vessel, would you not hasten to the port ? Be- 
hold, then, the world, nodding to its fall, and 
affording every indication not only of an age 
past maturity, but of its approaching end : and 
dost thou not give God thanks : dost thou not 
congratulate thine own felicity, that thou art 
snatched by an earlier deliverance from im- 
pending wreck and ruin^?" 

It is scarcely necessary to transcribe other 
passages to the same purpose ; though we may 
make several references, to show how habitually 
the notion of which we are speaking pervaded 
Cyprian's mind. In his Treatise on the Unity 
of the Church, he refers the heresies and 
divisions which gave occasion to that work to 
the prophecy of St. Paul to Timothy, that i?i the 
last days perilous times should come, and divi- 
sions arising from the wilful and insubordinate 
temper of many in the Church ^. In his book on 
the Vanity of Idols, he connects the calling of the 
Gentiles with the end of the world, in such terms 
as to prove that he imagined the prophecies 
' Page 236. ? Page 200. 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 259 

which he adduces^ spoke of his own days, as 
the fulness of times, and the approaching end ''. 
In his Epistle to the people of Thybaris, before 
quoted, he draws the same conclusion from the 
afflictions which the Church was then suffering ' : 
and in his Epistle to Cornelius, he refers the 
schisms in the Church to the last days spoken 
of by St. Paul, with the Apostle's warning, that 
such evils should precede them^. Thus, whether 
he had to rebuke the wilfulness of sectaries, or 
to meet the arguments of the heathen, or to 
exhort the brethren to meet martyrdom with 
courage, or the terrible death by pestilence with 
patience, or the loss of friends with resignation ; 
whether he had to support the faith of the 
Church against heresies, or its order against 
schism, he still referred to that overwhelming 
consideration, that the end of all things was at 
hand. 

Nor does Cyprian stand alone in this mistaken 
conviction. St. Chrysostom says, ^^ the end is 
no longer to be delayed ; for these things are 
even at the door. We know not, whether even 
in this our generation, the death of all things tem- 
poral may not arrive, and that dreadful day dawn, 
the day of judgment. For the greater part of 
the signs of that day are before us : the Gospel 
is preached in all lands ; we have had wars, and 
earthquakes, and famine ; and what besides is 
^ Page 227. ' Ep. Ivi. " Ep. Iv. 

s 2 



260 LIFE AND TIMES 

there to intervene ? But you do not recognize 
these signs. Learn^ however, that this blindness 
of yours is among the greatest of them ; for so 
it was in the days of Noe, and of Sodom V &c. 
And not to accumulate instances unnecessarily, 
Gregory, Bishop of Rome, at the close of the 
fifth century, writes : '' As when night is ending 
and day beginning, before the sun rises there is 
a sort of twilight, while the remains of the 
departing darkness are changing perfectly into 
the radiance of the day which succeeds ; so the 
end of this world is already mingling with the 
commencement of the next, and the very gloom 
of what remains has begun to be illuminated 
with the incoming of things spiritual." And 
again ; '' Why is it, I ask, that in these last 
times so many things begin to be clear about 
souls which before were hidden ; so that by open 
revelations and disclosures the age to come seems 
forcing itself on us and dawning ?" 

Indeed, as the learned author of the tract on 
Purgatory, in the " Tracts for the Times," from 
which the quotations from Gregory are borrowed, 
observes, " Nothing has been more common in 
every age, than to think the day of judgment 
approaching ; and perhaps it was intended that 
the Church should ever so suppose. Perhaps so 
to suppose is even a mark of a Christian mind ; 

J Chrysostomi Horn. xx. al. xxi. in Matt, last paragraph, 
vol. vii. p. 304. new Edition of Paris. 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 261 

which at least will ever be on its watch-tower to 
see whether it be coming or no, from desire of its 
Saviour's return ""." 

Now it is not to be doubted, that this pre- 
vailing expectation of the end of the world 
would materially influence the character of Chris- 
tians ; and that for the better : and thus in- 
directly it would be influential in the propagation 
of the faith ; since the purity of the Church was 
one of the great moral elements of its influence 
over the heathen, and one which we as Christians 
can never be ashamed to recognize. I confess 
that Gibbon does verbally ascribe to this opinion 
its appropriate eflect in the primitive Church : 
but let us remember, that it is his main object in 
the fifteenth chapter of his work, to which we 
are referring, to state the causes of the rapid 
growth of the Christian Church ; the second of 
which he makes '^ the doctrine of a future life, 
improved by every additional circumstance which 
could give weight and efficacy to that important 
truth." Having this his object in mind, and 
taking his words in their proper connexion, we 
shall see that he would represent the heathen 
as frightened into Christianity by that expecta- 
tion which purified the character of Christians ; 
and not as being won over to the Church, 
by the beauty of the Christian character thus 
purified. 

'" Tracts for the Times, No. 79^ p- 4^6' 



262 LIFE AND TIMES 

It is thus that he expresses hhnself. '' When 
the promise of eternal happiness was proposed to 
mankind, on condition of adopting the faith, and 
of observing the precepts of the Gospel, it is no 
wonder that so advantageous an offer should have 
beeti accepted by great numbers of every religion, 
of every rank, and of every province in the Roman 
empire. The ancient Christians were animated 
by a contempt for their present existence, and by 
a just confidence of immortality, of which the 
doubtful and imperfect faith of modern ages 
cannot give us any adequate notion. In the 
primitive Church, the influence of truth was 
very powerfully strengthened by an opinion, 
which, however it may deserve respect for its 
usefulness and antiquity, has not been found 
agreeable to experience. It was universally be- 
lieved, that the end of the world, and the king- 
dom of heaven, were at hand. The near approach 
of this wonderful event had been predicted by 
the Apostles ; the tradition of it was preserved 
by their earliest disciples, and those who under- 
stood in their literal sense the discourses of Christ 
himself, were obliged to expect the second and glori- 
ous coming of the Son of Man in the clouds, before 
that generation was totally extinguished, which 
had beheld his humble condition upon earth, and 
which might still witness of the calamities of the 
Jews under Vespasian or Hadrian. The revolu- 
tion of seventeen centuries has instructed us not 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 263 

to press too closely the mysterious language of 
prophecy and revelation ; but as long as^ for wise 
purposes, the error was permitted to subsist in 
the Church, it was productive of the most 
salutary effects on the faith and practice of 
Christians, who lived in the awful expectation 
of that moment, when the globe itself, and all 
the various races of mankind, should tremble at 
the appearance of their divine Judge." 

Now not to mention the malicious tone of this 
passage, and the temerity with which its infidel 
author has ventured so to interpret prophecy as to 
make it false ; (surely his unhallowed hand might 
have refrained at least from touching the ark 
itself!) is it not manifest, that as concerns the 
expectation of the coming of Christ, and that 
also of the Millenium, to which he next adverts, 
and in short every expectation founded on the 
reception and belief of what was revealed by 
Christ, and propagated among his disciples, with 
or without some mixture of human error ; is it 
not manifest, that such an expectation could only 
produce an effect on those who had believed 
already ; that is, on those who had embraced the 
revelation of the truth ? But if so, this expecta- 
tion was not among the direct causes of the 
growth of Christianity, by directing towards it, 
or frightening into it, those who were without : 
and if it was, and was by God Himself intended 
to be a means of purifying the lives and affec- 



264 LIFE AND TIMES 

tions of Christians, and so indirectly working 
upon the heathen, who saw their good works, 
and glorified Our Father which is in Heaven, 
little will be gained to the cause of infidelity, 
from this ground of a Christian's rejoicing and 
humble boast. 

And here some other remarks are suggested, 
upon the Christian's hope of his Lord's speedy 
coming. The expectation of a rapid period of 
the world was never a matter of faith in the 
Church, nor imposed as such by any body of 
Christians, nor by any individual. It was at 
most an opinion of many great and good men, 
which had in it nothing contrary to true piety ; 
and which gave a high and noble tone to the 
applied theology of each passing age. It is 
in vain therefore to argue from their mistake 
in this matter, which was not a matter of faith, 
against the authority of the Fathers, as witnessing 
to the rule of faith. It is equally in vain to 
argue from hence against the importance of the 
unanimous judgment of the doctors of the 
Church, in its earliest and best days : for in 
the first place it is not clear that the unanimous 
judgment of the Fathers, at any one time, was 
ever recorded upon this subject^; and moreover, 

^ The Author of the Advent Sermons on Anlichrisl (No. 83 
of Tracts for the Times) says^ after having quoted some 
prophecies of impending persecution from the Scriptures, 
'' These passages were understood by the early Christians 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 265 

the expectation of the end of the world as imme- 
diately impending at any particular time, could 
never, in the very nature of things, become ca- 
tholic ; for it must always want the semper of 
catholicity, though at any one time it might have 
had (which however I deny in fact) the uhiqiie, 
and the ah omnibus. For example, those only 
who lived before and during the time of Cyprian, 
could possibly agree with him in supposing that 
in his day the end was at hand. This is, indeed, 
self-evident, and may appear like solemn trifling; 
but it has really its importance derived from the 
misrepresentations of those who deride the appeal 
to antiquity in theological discussions : for such 
opinions of })articular times, or of individual 
persons, are often adduced against us, as weak- 
ening the authority of tradition, or of the recorded 
universal judgment of all ages and Churches, in 
attestation of doctrinal truth. But we of the 

to relate to the persecution, which was to come in the last 
times ; and they seem evidently to bear upon them that 
meaning. Our Saviour's words, indeed, about the fiery 
trial which was coming, might seem at first sight to refer to 
the early persecutions, those to which the first Christians 
were exposed ; and doubtless so they do. Yet, violent as 
these persecutions were, they were not considered by those who 
suffered them, to be the proper fiiljilmerit of the prophecy." 
(p. 44.) Now if they looked for a farther fulfilment of 
these prophecies, they looked for a time in which they might 
be fulfilled ; and so those to whom the learned author refers, 
did not expect the end of the world as immediately ap- 
proaching. 



266 LIFE AND TIMES 

Anglican Church receive not as conclusive the 
testimony of one man or of one age ; therefore 
to weaken the authority of one man or one age, 
is not to weaken the support of our system : and 
again, we distinguish between doctrine and opi- 
nion ; and should distinguish between catholic 
doctrine, and pious and probable opinion, even 
if it should happen to be catholic : in the latter 
it is conceivable, that the whole Church might err, 
and yet the promise of Christ not fail ; in the 
former we know not how to believe that this 
could be the case, and therefore we believe 
Christ and the Church. 

Besides which it is to be remembered, that 
whatever weight the judgment of individuals, or 
even of Churches, may have on such a subject as 
the times of the end of the world, it must have as 
an interpretation of prophecy, as yet unfulfilled : 
and even those among us who place the authority 
of tradition at the highest, plainly declare, that 
" the Fathers do not convey to us the interpreta- 
tion of prophecy, with the same certainty as they 
convey doctrine." Even, therefore, should it be 
admitted, for argument's sake, that the Fathers 
have here, as a body, interpreted wrongly, our 
confidence in their authority, where they ought 
to be appealed to, is not a whit shaken. But let 
me remit the reader to the Tract last quoted ; 
the three first pages of which will convince all 
who know what is the doctrine of Rome on the 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 267 

Authority of Tradition, that that doctrine is not 
the doctrine of those who wish to remember, that 
our Church was once stigmatized as the " Church 
of the Traditioners''/' and to convert the impu- 
tation into a badge of honour and a pledge of 
fidelity and truth. As for persuading those who 
know not what the doctrine of Rome is, that is 
out of the question ; they want one of the things 
to be compared, and cannot therefore judge of 
their disparity. It w^ould be well if they could 
be persuaded to hold their tongues, until they 
have qualified themselves to speak. 

Here, too, I cannot withhold a comparison of 
the modesty of the general expressions of Cyprian, 
and the rest of the Fathers here quoted, with the 
temerity of those interjjreters (shall I call them?) of 
sacred Scripture in these days, who would fix the 
very year and the very day, at which we are to 
look for the end of the present system of things. 
In nothing does Antiquity rebuke modern specu- 
lators more severely, though silently, than by the 
reverence, the holy fear, with which she was wont 
to touch whatever is sacred, to enquire into what- 
ever is hidden. 

Of Cyprian's belief that the end of the world 
was at hand, it was an almost necessary part, that 
Antichrist was also already come, or very soon to 
be revealed : and accordingly he states most 

•' See note B of the Appendix to Dr. Hook's Call to Union 
on the Principles of the English Reformation. 



268 LIFE AND TIMES 

clearly that he looked for the revelation of that 
mystery of iniquity, as preceding the coming of 
Christ. '' Let it not move you," says he to the 
brethren of Legio and Asturia', " that in these 
latter days the faith of some has been wavering ; 
that the fear of God has diminished among them, 
and the bonds of union broken. These things 
have been foretold as the attendants of the end 
of the world; and our Lord and His Apostles 
have agreed in predicting, that at the close of the 
world, and at the coming of Antichrist, all good 
things should appear to fail, and all evil things, 
and all things hostile to the Church, should in- 
crease." And again, '' Antichrist is at hand, but 
Christ also cometh immediately after. The enemy 
advances in his rage, but the Lord delays not 
His coming, to avenge our sufferings and afflic- 
tions ^" 

That Antichrist was very near at hand, was 
evidently, then, a part of Cyprian's belief; but 
when we come to enquire what was his notion 
concerning the character of Antichrist, and his 
personality, so to speak, we shall find the same 
vagueness in him, that we must find in all who 
cannot avoid the mention of such things as are 
vaguely set before us in Scripture to excite us 
to piety and to watchfulness, because the mys- 
terious annunciations have become deeply im- 
pressed upon their feelings ; but who dare 
■« Ep. Ixviii. p. 120. '* Ep, Ivi. p. 92. 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 2CJ) 

not take such liberties with Holy Writ, as to 
erect for themselves a figure of full propor- 
tions, out of a few striking lineaments. It should 
seem, however, that Cyprian believed Antichrist 
to be a man, an individual, as opposed to a 
sect or party, to a prevailing tone of ethics or 
divinity, to a system of philosophy, or a spirit 
of philosophising, or to a vague accession of 
evils, whether persecution, or moral or religious 
evil, in which light Antichrist seems to be viewed 
by different persons at present. For in his 
testimonies against the Jews, having referred to 
the prophecy in the fourteenth chapter of Isaiah, 
especially to the words, " Is this the man that 
made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms, 
that made the world as a wilderness ?" he speaks 
of Antichrist as of him who shall come as a man\ 
And the following passage may seem to tend the 
same way : '^ those virgins (who are cut off in the 
plague) leave the world in peace, and with an 
untarnished reputation, and have not to dread the 
threat, the seductiones et lupanaria, of the ap- 
proaching Antichrist"." Here, besides the person 
of Antichrist, w^e have also one feature of his 
character, a heartless and shameless debauchery, 
in a word, a total moral degradation. 

The assertion that Antiochus, in the very act 

' De Antichristo, quod in hominem veniat Test. Jud. 
lib. iii. §. 118. p. 329- 
•" De Mort. p. 233. 



^70 LIFE AND TIMES 

of persecution mentioned in the historical book 
of the Maccabees, was an impersonation, or at 
least a precursive figure, of Antichrist", also leads 
to the conclusion, that Cyprian made that mys- 
tery of iniquity an individual ; and intimates 
another part of his expected character and ac- 
tions, that he should be a savage persecutor. 
And yet another character of that coming pest 
is indicated by the assertion of Cyprian, that 
those v^ho separate the Church, imitate his 
character, and are actuated by his spirit. " Their 
perversion," says he, in his Epistle to Cornelius 
on the schism of Fortunatus and Felicissimus, 
'^ is to be lamented even to tears, v^hom the Devil 
so thoroughly blinds, that, disregarding the eternal 
pains of hell, they dare to imitate the approach 
of the coming Antichrists" And again?; 'Mf 
we set aside the errors for which men contend, 
and revert religiously and faithfully to the au- 
thority of the Gospel, and to the tradition of 
Apostolical principles, we shall perceive, that no 
portion of the grace of the Church, and of salva- 
tion, remains at their disposal, who scatter and 
oppose the Church of Christ; and who are 
called adversaries by Christ himself, but by his 
Apostles Antichrist^ Hence we may collect, I 

" Rex Antiochus infestus, immo in Antiocho Antichristus 
expressus. Ad Fort. p. 270. 
° Ep. Iv. p. 89. 
^ Ep. Ixxiii. p. 134. 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 271 

think, as from no obscure hints, that Antichrist 
was, in Cyprian's judgment, to be not only a 
persecutor and an alien from all the hopes and 
blessings of Christianity, but that he was to be 
also an apostate ; ravaging that fold to which 
he had once belonged. 

I have only to add, that there has nothing 
intervened, that I know of, which should prevent 
our having the same notions of Antichrist, and 
the same feelings about his coming, that St. 
Cyprian had : and so long as the end shall be 
yet future, the words of Cyprian may well ex- 
press the feelings of those who are on their post 
as watchmen, and convey a timely warning to 
the careless. As an appropriate precept and en- 
couragement to those who deeply feel these things, 
he reminds Lucius, that he has returned to his 
Episcopal throne, ^' that the Bishop may stand 
at the Altar of God, to exhort his flock to take 
up the arms which shall prepare them for con- 
fession and martyrdom, and to second his pre- 
cepts with his actions ; and thus to prepare his 
soldiers for the battle, while Antichrist is ap- 
proaching, with the incitements not only of his 
voice and of his exhortations, but by the example 
also of his faith and firmness^." 

'i Ep. Iviii. p. 96. 



CHAP. XII. 



WEAKNESS OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. — NUMIDIAN CHRISTIANS 

CARRIED CAPTIVE BY BARBARIANS. COLLECTIONS MADE 

IN CARTHAGE TO REDEEM THEM. CYPRIAN's EPISTLE TO 

CiECILIUS ON THE MIXED CUP. HIS DOCTRINE APPLIED 

TO HALE COMMUNION, AND OTHER ERRORS IN THE PRE- 
SENT DAY. 



Such was the state of the Roman Empire in 
this age, that while its very centre was subject 
to the incursions of the Goths, the confines were 
exposed to the ravages of the several barbarian 
nations on whose territories they bordered : and 
Numidia, with the rest of the frontier provinces, 
was subject to this kind of border warfare. On 
one occasion, in the beginning of the year 253, 
a descent having been made on their territory, 
a number of Christians were carried off, together 
with other Numidian captives, by their barbarian 
invaders % and the brethren of their own province 

*> It is difficult, if not impossible, to determine who were 
the barbarians, into whose hands the Numidian brethren 
had fallen. Some have supposed that they were Persians; 



LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CYPRIAN. 273 

being too poor to redeem them from captivity, 
the Church in Carthage took advantage of the 
opportunity of relieving the distressed members 
of a sister Church > and of acting upon that 
Christian communion, which binds together all 
the members of Christ's body, first, individuals 
with their particular Church, and then, in those 
Churches, with the whole body. On this occa- 
sion, a collection was made in Carthage, at the 
instance of St. Cyprian, to whom the Numidians 
had applied for assistance ; and notwithstanding 
the large demands on their charity which had 
already arisen during the plague, no less than 
a hundred thousand sesterces (nearly eight hun- 
dred pounds) was transmitted from the Carthagi- 
nians to the distressed Church of the Numidians. 



but it should seem to be sufficient to set aside this notion, 
that their victorious invasion of the Roman Empire was 
not till the year 260, seven years after the events of which 
we are speaking; and yet this opinion must be mentioned, 
because it has had its influence in determining, or rather in 
rendering indeterminable, the date of the Epistle of Cyprian 
to the Numidian Bishops. Bishop Pearson, in his Annales 
Cyprianici, argues with great learning, from St. Augustine 
and others, that the invaders in this instance were some 
warrior nations bordering on Numidia to the south. The 
Franks seem about this time to have pushed their successes 
through Spain into Mauritania, and may well have reached 
Numidia also, in their rapid foray : but perhaps it may be 
difficult to determine whether this irruption of the Franks 
exactly synchronizes with the Epistle of Cyprian. See 
Gibbon's Decline and Fall, vol. i. p. 415 



274 LIFE AND TIMES 

The Epistle with which Cyprian accompanied 
this charitable collection, is replete with the 
expressions of those sentiments of Christian be- 
nevolence, and of those principles of Christian 
fellowship, which alone entitles even liberality 
to the name of Charity, and to the reward of 
a Christian grace. " I read your letter/' says 
he to the Numidian Bishops, ^^ with much emotion, 
and not without tears at the sad account which 
you gave of our brethren in Christ. For who 
can help grieving in such a case, or refuse to 
look on their calamity as his own ; since St. 
Paul says, if one member suffer, all the members 
siffer with it: and again, who is weak, and I am 
not zveak ? The peril therefore and the captivity 
of our brethren should be felt as if it were our 
own ; since we are one body with them, and 
not only natural affection, but religious prin- 
ciple, should incite us to relieve them. More- 
over, since we are told, that they who are 
baptized have put on Christ ; we should behold 
Christ Himself in these our suffering members : 
and He who redeemed us from death, should in 
them be by us redeemed from danger : He who 
delivered us from the jaws of the Devil, and 
is now in the power of the barbarians, should 
by us be delivered thence : and He who paid for 
us the ransom of His blood, should now be 
ransomed by our pecuniary aid. Doubtless He 
now suffers these events, that our faith may be 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 275 

put to the test ; that it may be seen, whether 
each of us is willing to do that for others, which 

he would wish to have done for himself "," &c 

He afterwards says, that the brethren in Car- 
thage, though they hoped that no such need 
would occur, yet desired to be acquainted with 
it, if their help should be again required in a like 
case. 

In return for this supply, which was the act 
of fellowship which Cyprian and his Church were 
enabled to afford, they request the prayers of the 
poor Numidians, which would be on their part 
an equal reciprocation of Christian fellowship. 
*' That you may be enabled to return the benefit 
which yoii receive from the contributors, by your 
prayers, and by Eucharistic commemorations, I 
have subjoined their names," says Cyprian, ^^ to- 
gether with those of the other Bishops, who, 
happening to be in Carthage, have contributed 
according to their ability. We bid you fare- 
well, brethren, and desire your constant remem- 
brance." 

I need not remind the reader, that this fra- 
ternal intercourse of giving and receiving be- 
tween distant Churches, united in one faith, is 
accordant with the Apostolical precepts and 
practice. It is also perfectly in the spirit of 
primitive Christianity, and probably existed in 
*» Ep. Ix. p. 99. 
t2 



•276 LIFE AND TIMES 

the earlier ages of the Church, to a much 
greater extent than we are aware. The Church 
of Rome, distinguished from the earliest ages for 
its wealth, was also honourably distinguished for 
its diffusive benevolence ; and it became an esta- 
blished custom to make collections in Rome for 
the poorer, but more ancient and mother Church 
at Jerusalem. ^' Dionysius, Bishop of Corinth, 
writing to the Roman Church in the time of 
Soter, eleventh Bishop of Rome, about the middle 
of the second century, says, that *^ it had been 
customary with them from the beginning, to 
benefit all the brethren in various ways ; and 
to send assistance to many Churches in all cities, 
thus relieving the poverty of the needy ; and to 
supply aid to the brethren condemned to the 
mines, by the gifts which they had sent even 
from the beginning ; that they preserved as 
Romans the customs of the Romans, delivered 
to them from their fathers; and that their 
blessed Bishop Soter had not only observed 
this custom, but had increased it by supplying 
abundantly the provision allotted to the saints, 
and by comforting with blessed words the 
brethren who came to him, even as a loving 
father acts towards his children.' The same 
mercy and charity of the Roman Church is 
mentioned by Dionysius Alexandrinus, in the 
following century, in an Epistle to Stephen, 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 277 

where he states, that all Syria and Arabia had 
received supplies from Rome '." 

Perhaps it would be well if this practice of 
making collections for poor Churches with which 
we are in communion, as well as for the poor 
under any other name, were more frequent ; for 
it would be a constantly recurring memorial and 
exercise of that communion which exists, (and 
ought not to be a dormant or forgotten privilege,) 
as truly between Catholic Churches as corporate 
bodies, as between Catholic Christians as indi- 
viduals ; and even more truly than between 
Christians with all men whoever, as of the same 
blood with them, and children of the same 
heavenly Father. And as the poor shall never 
cease out of the land ; so that we shall never 
lack the privilege of doing unto Christ the good 
which they require and receive at our hand : 
so also between particular and national Churches 
there will always be a sufficient disparity to 
enjoin the duty, and to afford the privilege of 
communicating in giving and receiving. 

The next Epistle, (the sixty-third,) written to 
Cagcilius to enforce the necessity of using wine in 
the Eucharistic cup, is most instructive on the 
subject of the primitive doctrine of the Holy 
Communion. A passing indication that it was 
written during persecution enables us with suffi- 
cient accuracy to refer this Epistle to the spring 
^ Palmer's Treatise on the Church of Christ, vol. ii. p. 498. 



278 LIFE AND TIMES 

of the year 253. Its first occasion and object 
are soon related; but it affords so many indi- 
cations of Cyprian's opinion upon the doctrine 
of the Eucharist, that we shall be obliged to 
examine it at considerable length. 

At the time of which we are writing, a very 
frequent, perhaps a daily, participation in the 
Eucharistic feast was the universal custom among 
Christians : but there were men, who were in- 
duced from a fear that their religion would be 
betrayed by the smell of the wine, taken in the 
morning, to consecrate the cup only with water ; 
and thus to avoid an involuntary confession, and 
the consequent persecution. These persons are to 
be distinguished from the Aquarii or Encratites'^ ; 
a pernicious sect, who refused to consecrate wine 
at the Eucharist, because, forsooth, they thought 
it wrong to use either wine or flesh, and would 
be more holy than Christ Himself. Had he 
been refuting the error of such persons, Cyprian 
would have been more indignantly severe : as it 
is, he exposes the danger and impropriety of the 
practice in question firmly, indeed, but with 
much patience and forbearance ; and the hardest 
things that he says of those who were Aquarii 
from timidity, is, that they seem ashamed of 
Christ's blood, and that, therefore, they cannot 
hope to be worthy to pour out their own blood 

•• For an account of these Aqaarii, see Bingham's Orig. 
Ecc. XV. ii. 7. 



I 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 279 

for His sake. And he maintains, with arguments 
only too abundantly conclusive, that wine must at 
all hazards and at all events be mingled with the 
cup, and taken by the people, or that the com- 
municants are deprived of the blood of Christ in 
the Eucharist. 

And his expressions in this Epistle are such, 
and his arguments are so conducted, as to afford 
the most convincing proof, that in two things 
at least he was most decidedly opposed to the 
modern Romish system, in that (1) he could 
never have consented to take the cup from the 
laity ; and (2) he cannot have held the dogma 
of transubstantiation. 

It would be absurd to make a parade of the 
evidence which we derive from Cyprian's works, 
that the laity in his days received the Eucharist 
in both kinds ; since the custom of the Church 
for several centuries is confessed on all hands ; 
and since the only question is, not whether Rome 
took away the cup from the laity, but whether 
she did not, in so doing, act presumptuously, 
tyrannically, and sacrilegiously : presumptuously, 
in contradicting our Lord's intention, as collected 
from the method of His institution, handed down 
and interpreted in and by the Apostolical method 
of administering these most solemn mysteries of 
our faith : tyrannically, in thus curtailing the 
people's privileges in this blessed Sacrament : and 
sacrilegiously, in depriving the people of grace. 



280 LIFE AND TIMES 

when she took away from them one of the means 
of its conveyance. I maintain, upon grounds 
which T proceed to adduce, that Cyprian would 
have held that Rome has fallen under the whole 
of this censure. 

'' Although/' says he, " I know that almost all 
the Bishops by divine appointment set over the 
Churches of the Lord throughout the world 
maintain the order of Gospel truth and divine 
tradition, and do not depart from that which 
Christ our Master taught and did, to follow a 
new invention ; yet since some, either through 
ignorance or simplicity, do 7iot do that which 
Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour did and 
taught, in the consecration of the cup of the 
Lord, and in the administering it to the people ; 
I have thought it as well necessary as religious, 
to write this Epistle to you, that if any one be 
still involved in that error, he may receive the 
light of truth, and return to the root and original 
of the divine tradition''." Let it be borne in mind, 
as we read this passage, what it is that Cyprian 
calls a novel invention, an error ; and in what 
sort of things he holds the divine tradition, the 
Gospel truth, the teaching and example of our 
Lord and Master, to be imperative ; what are 
the desertions of it which he attributes to igno- 
rance or simplicity at the best ; and what he 
judges it a matter of religious necessity to set 
'' P, 104, 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. Ogl 

right : and I think it will be sufficiently clear, that 
he would have pronounced precisely the same 
judgment on the actual taking away the cup 
from the laity, which he pronounced on the 
virtual taking it away from the Eucharist alto- 
gether, by a fancied consecration of that which 
could not become the blood of Christ. 

But let us again hear the words of Cyprian. 
" We ought to follow the truth of God, not the 
custom of men : for God saith by the mouth of 
Isaiah, In vain do they worship me, teaching the 
commandments and doctrines of men. (Is. xxix. 13. 
see vers. LXX.) And again the Lord Himself 
repeats this rebuke in the Gospel, saying, Ye 
reject the commandment of God, that ye may 
establish your own traditions; and again in another 
place he says. He who shall break one of the least 
of these commandments, and shall teach men so, shall 
he called the least i?i the kingdom of heaven. Now^ 
if it is not lawful to break even the least of the 
Lord's commandments, how^ much less is it per- 
mitted to change or infringe, by any human tra- 
dition, a divine rule concerning that which is so 
great, so important, and so essentially connected 
with the very Sacrament of our Lord's passion, 
and our redemption. For if Jesus Christ our 
Lord and our God is Himself the High Priest 
of God the Father, and first offered Himself 
as a sacrifice to the Father, and commanded us 
to do this in the remembrance of Him ; surely 



28-2 LIFE AND TEMES 

that priest truly discharges the office in the room 
of Christ, who imitates the actions of Christ ; 
and he then offers a full and true sacrifice in the 
Church to God the Father, when he so enters 
upon the offering, as Christ also seems to have 
doneV &c. 

I do not adduce these passages, nor any of 
those presently quoted, as if they were an ex- 
pression of his avowed judgment, upon a point 
which was never discussed in the Church, till he 
had long gone to his crown. He does not here 
afford an actual and specific condemnation of the 
practice of Rome in withholding the cup from 
the laity : such a condemnation, preceding the 
times in which it was to be applied, could only 
be expected from our divine Lord, who could 
foresee its future necessity : and such a con- 
demnation we actually have in his words Drink 
ye ALL of it: and again. Except ye eat the flesh 
of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have 
no Vfe In you. But such expressions as those 
just quoted from St. Cyprian indicate his mind 
sufficiently to make us morally certain, that he 
would at once have protested against the breach 
of a rule (not sanctified, for it was already 
divine, but) handed down and attested by in- 
spired Apostles, and holy Bishops, and martyrs 
and saints, in short, by the whole Church of the 
living God, the pillar and ground of the truth, 
' pp. 108, 109. 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 28o 

from the first time that the Eucharist was ever 
celebrated with lay communicants. Surely Cy- 
prian would have judged, that in this Rome acted 
most presumptuously: and perhaps his opinion 
would not have been altered, if he had known 
that the Council of Constance, which first en- 
joined half communion, would venture to do so 
expressly, notwithstanding our Lord did appoint 
it in both kinds. 

But I maintain farther, that there is every 
reason to believe, that Cyprian would have 
judged that Rome acted tyrannically and sacri- 
legiously, as well as rashly, in thus mutilating the 
feast of the Eucharist, and curtailing the privi- 
lege of the people, so as to leave it doubtful at 
the least whether he did not deprive them of 
grace, in taking from them one of the means 
by which it is conveyed. For I observe, that in 
his argument to enforce the necessary presence 
of wine in the cup, he distinguishes the meaning 
of each portion of the mixed cup, telling us that 
the water signifies the people, that the wine 
signifies the blood of Christ'^: and that he 

" See p. 108. It is worth noting, that this reasoning, 
does not touch the validity of our oblation, and communion 
without 7vater in the cup : for though it were most desirable 
that we should have every possible figure of communion 
with the brethren in the Eucharistic cup, it is only essential 
that we have the New Testament in Christ's blood. It may 
be desirable, that is, that we have the jvaler, but is only 
essential that we have the wine. By all participating in the 



284 LIFE AND TIMES 

reasons thus ; that if but one be offered, it will 
be without the people, or without the blood of 
Christ respectively. Now if he thus distin- 
guishes between the separate portions of the 
mixed cup, in one part of the Eucharist ; much 
more surely would he have distinguished between 
the separate elements of the Eucharist them- 
selves : especially, since for thus doing he would 
have had ample authority in the words of the 
Apostle ; the cup of Messing which we bless, is it 
not the communion of the blood of Christ? The 
bread which zve break, is it not the communion of 
the body of Christ^? and since the whole body 
of the Church has ever attested the same thing, 
in the formulary of administering ; where the 
bread is ever called the body of Christ, and the 
cup the blood of Christ"'. But if there is a 

same cup, we have the actual communion with the brethren, 
and may therefore dispense with the figure: but if all do 
not partake of the cup, they receive neither the figure nor 
the reality of Christ's blood; neither the figure nor the 
reality of communion, either with Christ, or with the Church. 
Palmer, in his Origines Liturgicse, has shown how strong our 
position is in this matter against the cavils of Rome. 

' 1 Cor. X. 16. 

'" This is true even of the Romish Liturgy of the mass, 
for in receiving the host the priest says. Corpus JDomini ijostri 
Jesu Christi custodial animam meum in vitam ceternam : and in 
receiving the chalice he says, Sanguis Domini &c. But this 
is not the only instance in which the Liturgy of the mass, 
which is, as a whole, more ancient than the doctrines of 
Rome on the subject of the Eucharist, is very inconveniently 
adapted to the service of that Church. 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 285 

distinct meaning in, according to the very lowest 
view of the Sacraments, there is a distinct instruc- 
tion conveyed hy each portion of the Eucharist : 
and surely to deprive the people of either portion 
of the instruction, can consist with no proper 
respect to the institution of God ; with no sound 
exercise of the Church's love, as the mother of 
the faithful; with no common care for the spiritual 
advantage of the people : and still less can such 
an act consist with any right view of the dignity 
and efficacy of the Eucharist, of the duty of the 
Church, of the privilege of the people, if the 
Eucharist be more than a means of instruction, 
even a conveyance of grace. 

But it is not a mere matter of probable deduc- 
tion that Cyprian would make, he actually does 
make the cup the instrument of particular bless- 
ings, so as to convey the complement of the 
Eucharistic grace, as it certainly forms the com- 
plement of the Eucharistic oblation and feast. 
For he quotes the Psalmist, saying, Thy exhila- 
rating cup is very good, (calix tuus inebrians per- 
quam optimus ;) and spiritualizes this into an 
assertion of the graces conveyed by the Eucha- 
ristic cup, in a manner which would be wholly 
inapposite, as applied to the Eucharistic feast 
without the cup ; as much so indeed as applied 
to the cup without the wine : and I especially 
speak here of the feast of the Eucharist, as well 



286 LIFE AND TIMES 

as the sacrifice ; because the Romanists also make 
the cup a part of the sacrifice, though they take 
it away from the people in the feast. Let this 
be borne in mind, while we observe that the 
whole force of Cyprian's reasoning, when he thus 
applies the Psalmist's words to the matter in 
hand, is derived from the particular properties of 
wine, with its effects upon him who drinks it, so 
as to display his notion of that forming a part 
of the Eucharistic feast ; and this is all that we 
want, whether or no his illustration is the hap- 
piest that might be imagined. '' That exhila- 
ration," says he, ^^ produced by the cup of the 
Lord and his blood, not being like that which is 
produced by common wine, the Psalmist declares 
the exhilarating cup to be very good : for the cup 
of the Lord so exhilarates those who drink it, as 
to make them sober"." These few words are 
sufficient to indicate the drift of his reasoning 
here ; and to show also, that it would be absurd, 
if no especial grace was conveyed to the recipi- 
ents by means of the cup ; or if the whole 
efficacy of the Eucharist resided in either kind. 
Indeed, if this latter figment of Rome were true, 
the practice which Cyprian condemns was quite 
as absurd, as it was erroneous. Why did not 
the Aquarii, who feared detection from the smell 

"p. 107. 



I 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 287 

of wine, receive the bread only ? As in the 
Church of Rome now, the single Priest or Bishop 
who was required to officiate, might consecrate 
and offer, and himself receive' of the wine for he 
had no occasion, his duties and avocations being 
all clerical, to endanger his safety by mixing 
with the heathen : and the many of the laity, 
whose occupation would not permit seclusion, 
would have been just as safe, as upon the 
Aquarian plan. There was more reason then 
to refrain from the wine at the Lord's Supper, 
if it were both lawful and equally beneficial, 
than there has ever been since : and if it be in 
itself unlawful, nothing can make it lawful ; if it 
be any thing short of quite as beneficial to the 
communicant, none without tyranny and sacri- 
lege can deprive the Church, or any member of 
the Church, of the greater benefit. 

But I go even farther. The pretence of the 
Roman Church, that the laity in receiving the 
body of Christ, receive also his blood, would 
at once have overturned Cyprian's whole argu- 
ment in this Epistle. A Romanist now could 
not, without exposing himself to the recoil of 
his own weapon, refute the very error which 
Cyprian exposes, upon the same grounds which 
Cyprian takes, who was unshackled by a future 
invention of the Church. And herein, whether 
he is right or wrong, Cyprian is intensely Anti- 
Romish. 



§88 LIFE AND TIMES 

One or two more extracts from the Epistle 
before us will enforce this assertion. " In Bap- 
tism the Holy Spirit is received ; and so those 
who have been baptized, and have received the 
Holy Spirit, come to the drinking of the cup of 

the Lord Baptism is once for all received ; 

but, on the contrary, there is always a thirst for 
the cup of the Lord, and it is constantly drank 
[Calix Domini in Ecclesiae semper et sititur et 
bibitur] ''." Now who are they who always 
thirst for the cup of the Lord but the baptized ? 
And who has, or can have, a right to take away 
from them that for which they have always 
thirsted, and which they have always received ? 

Again : if it be reasonable to ask, and it is 
highly reasonable, '^ How shall we drink new 
wine of the fruit of the vine with Christ in 
the kingdom of His Father, if in the sacrifice 
we offer not the wine of God the Father, and 
of Christ ; nor mix the cup of the Lord accord- 
ing to the divine tradition p?" — Is it not equally 
reasonable, and even more natural, to ask. How 
shall we drink of the fruit of the vine new with 
Christ in His kingdom, unless we drink of the 
cup of His blood in the Eucharist ? Would not 
he who asked the first question, most probably 
have asked the second, if occasion served ? And 
would he not have held it a spiritual tyranny 
and sacrilege, to deprive the people of the 
° Page 106. P Page 10?. 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 289 

privilege spoken of in those mystical words of 
Scripture ; or even to have laid them under 
a reasonable doubt, whether they were deprived 
of it or no ? 

These remarks having been suggested directly 
from what Cyprian says, as deducible from his 
reasoning, by the addition of such steps only as 
are wholly in accordance both with his tone of 
argument, and with his known opinions ; 1 con- 
ceive that we might well suppose him to speak 
thus, if he could be called upon to give his 
judgment on the depriving the laity of the cup 
in the blessed Eucharist. 

' There is, then'', no excuse for following the 
practice of any, who may have hitherto ad- 
ministered the Lord's Supper to the people in 
one kind only, withholding from them the cup, 
which is the blood of our Lord. For we must 
ask, whom do they follow ? If in the Sacra- 
ment which Christ ordained, Christ alone is 
to be followed, surely this is our sufficient rule. 
We must hold to the truth of God, though 
particular customs of men be against it. Does 
not Isaiah say. In vain do they worship me, 
teaching the doctrines and commandments of men 9 
And does not the Lord say. Ye reject the com- 
mandment of God, that ye may establish your own 
traditions ? And again ; Whoever shall break one 

^ Non est ergo, &c. p. 108. I am not here making a 
translation, but running a parallel. 

U 



290 LIFE AND TIMES 

of the least of these commandments, and teach men 
so, the same shall he called the least in the king- 
dom of heaven? And if one of the least of 
Christ's commandments cannot be broken with 
impunity, how much less may any of those 
institutions which we have from Christ Himself, 
handed down by the Church in all ages hitherto, 
by Apostles and all holy men, and which form 
a part of His own appointed method of cele- 
brating those tremendous mysteries of His body 
and blood ? The priest then only performs his 
proper office, when he does as Christ did, the 
great High Priest of our calling : and all religion 
and sound discipline will be overthrown, if that 
which was divinely appointed in such a matter 
is to be broken through or not, at the will of 
men. 

* Nor yet are we to view this question as if 
it concerned obedience to God alone ; since 
something is due in all such matters to the 
Church and to the people of God. And how 
can you, without tyranny, take away from the 
people that which is theirs of right ? and since 
it is so theirs as to be the instrument of 
grace to them, how can you deprive them of it, 
without lowering the Church's holiness ? If they 
receive not the blood of Christ poured out for 
them, how can they be expected, if occasion 
should call for it, to pour out their blood for 
the truth ? If they drink not into Christ's 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 291 

death, how can they be expected to live in 
newness of life ? No. Let not this reproach 
remain any longer on the Church, or on any 
party in it ; but do you return to, and let ns 
all hold, the divine, the Apostolical custom and 
tradition: and maintain in those sacred mysteries 
a due reverence to God, and a due charity to all 
men.' 

We proceed to shew, in the second place, 
that the Author of the Epistle under considera- 
tion could not have held the doctrine of Transub- 
stantiation. 

Here, again, let us first see the ground on 
which Cyprian stood in respect of the question 
before us; lest we should on the one hand expect 
too much from his testimony, or on the other make 
too light of that which we have. 

The question last discussed is one of custom ; 
or rather it is so represented by those who must 
so represent it, to place it within the bounds 
even of that exaggerated spiritual power before 
which they bow. They, with us, confess that 
the custom was otherwise in Cyprian's days ; yet 
hold that it has been rightly altered before our 
own. But the question of Transubstantiation 
is one of doctrine ; and must have been the 
same, therefore, through all ages, in all orthodox 
Churches. Although, therefore, we are just as 
well able to point out the actual rise and growth 
of this doctrine, as of the former practice, this is 

u2 



292 LIFE AND TIMES 

denied by the Romanists, who claim the Church 
in all ages, and all orthodox Christians, Cy- 
prian of course among the rest, as maintaining 
their present doctrine. Their claim, however, 
will not subvert the truth of history; and they 
are in vain challenged to prove from ancient 
and authentic records, that the doctrine of 
Transubstantiation was held by the ancient 
Church, or even by any one divine, through 
many centuries. 

But this fact of the novelty of the doctrine, 
which makes it impossible for the Romanists 
to prove their point from the Fathers, makes 
it also more difficult to find an express con- 
demnation of their view of the question by the 
same Fathers. For who would, who could, 
except with the spirit of prophecy, condemn a 
doctrine in express terms, which was not taught 
till ages after he entered into his rest ? And 
because Cyprian could never have dreamt that a 
question should be discussed, which was first 
mooted in the eighth century "^ ; because he 

*= There are, however, polemical miracles related as 
having been wrought in proof of the doctrine in question 
before this time. For instance, Gregory the Great, seeing 
a woman laugh at the celebration of the Eucharist, asked 
her why she laughed; and was answered, " Because you call 
the bread which I myself made, the body of our Lord." 
And at the prayers of the saint the consecrated bread 
appeared as flesh. Of course this miracle is an after in- 
vention ; for, indeed, both the sneer of the woman and the 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. *293 

could never by anticipation imagine, that a 
determination of that question should be imposed 
as a matter of faith necessary to salvation ; 
it would be unreasonable to look in Cyprian for 
any express denial or refutation of that doctrine ; 
or any actual protest against the spiritual tyranny 
which decreed such a monstrous opinion as 
necessary to be believed. This, as in the former 
case, could only be expected from divine inspira- 
tion, or from our Lord Himself; and there in 
fact we find it, totidem verbis: for He who said. 
Drink ye all of this, also said, by his Apostle 
Paul, " As often as ye eat this bread, and drink 
this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till He 
come. Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, 
and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall 
be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. 
But let a man examine himself, and so let him 
eat of that bread, and drink of that cup." And 

miraculous answer to it, are in the spirit of a much later 
age. But I mention this miracle as suggesting a remark on 
others of the like kind ; that they, as well as the writings of 
the doctors of the Church, bear testimony to the changes 
which have been made in the doctrine of Transubstantiation. 
So long as portions of Christ's body were all that was 
required for the establishment of the then doctrine of Rome, 
the bread was in the habit of miraculously assuming the ap- 
pearance of divided flesh : but when " whole Christ" was 
wanted to attest an improvement of the doctrine, " whole 
Christ," a little babe in the cradle, or the like appeared. 
Romish inventions, not to say the Roman Church, makes 
Heaven most accommodatinor in its miraculous tokens. 



294 LIFE AND TIMES 

again, ^'^ the bread which we break, is it not the 
communion of the body of Christ ^ ?" 

All that we must expect then in Cyprian, 
touching the figment of transubstantiation, is what 
we find also in him touching the reveries of 
Emmanuel Swedenborg, or the inspirations of 
the Quakers or of the Irvingites ; that is, such 
a manner of expression as can be accounted for 
only by his profound ignorance of the doctrine in 
question. If we find any thing (which in fact we 
shall not) which may be distorted into a verdict 
in favour of that doctrine, we shall not be much 
staggered ; because it is natural to fall into a 
manner of expression not rigidly correct, when 
error, on either hand, has not yet called for pre- 
cision : but if it should happen, (as it will,) that 
we find something literally adverse to it, its effect 
will be great in proportion. Any one who will 
find in a writer so early as St. Cyprian a specific 
condemnation of the doctrine of transubstantiation, 
will do Rome a great favour, however paradoxical 
the assertion may appear ; for he will be pro- 
ducing historical evidence of its existence, such 
as she has never yet been able to find. 

But now, that we may know what it is that we 
are to compare with Cyprian's doctrine, we must 
state where it is that we are obliged to dissent 
from Rome ; and how far we should or may go 
along with her. 

^ 1 Cor. xi. 26— 2S. and x. 16. 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 295 

That the bread and wine, then, in the blessed 
Eucharist, are verily and indeed the body and 
blood of Christ, we must hold, or desert the 
Catholic faith, and the doctrine of our own 
Church, as stated even in her elementary Cate- 
chism. Wherein consists the presence of the 
body and blood of Christ ; that is, how it is 
present, and how we are to reconcile the verity 
of its presence Vv^ith the substance of the bread 
and wine still before us ; we do not absolutely 
define. We may leave even the Romanist to 
hold his own view of this, (I mean this speci- 
fically ; the presence of Christ, not the absence 
of the bread,) so he hold it only as a pious opinion, 
not to be imposed on others as a matter of faith: 
nay, so far, we may even allow him greater liberty 
in his faith than the ultraprotestant, who alto- 
gether denies, or explains away, the presence of 
Christ in the Eucharist. But that the bread 
and wine are no longer present in the Lord's 
Supper, that we cannot admit; nay, we may not; 
for we cannot if we do receive Christ's words, 
and those of the Apostles, in their simplicity. 

Perhaps I ought to apologize for all this pre- 
paration : but few who have not turned their 
minds to the subject polemically, are aware 
of the importance of bearing in mind the position 
of those whose judgment they would apply to the 
question, and of forming a precise notion of the 
matter in dispute. 



296 LIFE AND TIMES 

But now to the immediate subject. 

What did Melchisedec offer ? Bread and wine. 
In this Melchisedec typified the Eucharist, as 
Cyprian tells us, with the consent, as I believe, of 
all the Fathers who have touched upon the subject, 
and with perfect truth. But how does Cyprian 
express this ? Christ " offered the very same 
thing which Melchisedec had offered, that is, 
bread and wine ; that is, in very truth. His own 
body and blood," [panem et vinum, suum scilicet 
corpus et sanguinem^] These words are equally 
strong against the Romish and the Zuinglian doc- 
trine of the Eucharist. The Romanist could not 
consistently say that Christ offered bread and 
wine: the Zuinglian will not endure to hear 
that he offered his own body and blood in the 
Eucharist. 

Cyprian quotes Genesis xlix. 10. He shall 
wash his garments in wine, and his clothes in 
the blood of the grape: and asks^, when the blood 
of the grape is mentioned, what is signified but 
the wine of the cup of our Lord's blood ? Here 
the last remark may be repeated. 

But the following passage is one of the most 
remarkable incidental testimonies against the 
Romish doctrine of transubstantiation, that all 
antiquity affords. 

" That waters signify people, holy Scripture 
tells us in the Apocalypse, when saying. The 

8 Page 105. 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 297 

waters which thou sawest, upon which that harlot 
sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations of 
the heathen, and tongues. And the like figure we 
see is contained in the Sacrament of the cup : 
for since Christ bare us all, who also bare our 
sins, we perceive that the people is to be under- 
stood in the water, while the blood of Christ is 
shewn in the wine. When, therefore, water is 
mingled with wine in the cup, the people is 
made one with Christ, and the host of the 
believing is associated and joined with Him, in 
whom they have believed. Which association 
and conjunction of water and of wine is so 
made in the cup of the Lord, that there can be 
no separation of either from the commixture. 
Whence it cometh, that nothing can separate 
the Church, that is, the multitude constituting 
the Church, and maintaining faithfully and with 
unmoved constancy, that faith which it hath 
received, from Christ, so as to shake their 
inseparable love, or to put an end to it. There- 
fore on no account can water be offered alone, 
in the consecration of the cup, nor wine alone : 
for if any one offers only wine, the blood of 
Christ begins to exist without us, but if the 
water be alone, the people begins to be without 
Christ : but when both are mixed together, and 
combined by a perfect union, then is the spiritual 
and heavenly Sacrament perfected. And so neither 
water alone, nor wine alone, is the cup of the 



298 LIFE AND TIMES 

Lord, unless each be mingled with the other; 
just as neither flour alone, nor water alone, can 
be the body of the Lord ; but both must be 
joined together, and united in the substance of 
one loaf. In which Sacrament also the people is 
displayed united ; for as many grains collected 
together, and mingled and joined one with 
another, make one loaf; so in Christ, who is the 
heavenly bread, we know that there is but one 
body, with which the whole number of the faith- 
ful is conjoined and made one." 

Now here, either both are transubstantiated, 
the water and the wine, or neither is : but if the 
water is transubstantiated, it is into the whole 
body of Christ's people : that is, water' no 
longer remains in the cup, but the whole 
body of Christ's people is there bodily in its 
stead : but this is absurd : therefore the wine is 
not transubstantiated according to the opinion 
of Cyprian here expressed. 

Or again : either both are represented, Christ's 
blood and the people, or neither is. But the 
people are represented ; for Cyprian says so, 
(as he does indeed of Christ's blood, though I 
would overlook for a moment the actual as- 
sertion,) and therefore according to Cyprian, 
Christ's blood is represented. But this is not 
the doctrine of Rome *". 

' Aquas, &c. p. 108. 

'' In fact, tiie Romanists do away with the sacramental 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 299 

There are also in the same Epistle, from 
which we have been now quoting, several passing 
expressions decidedly anti-Romish ; and which 
we should have adduced as affording no vague 
intimation of Cyprian's judgment, if we had not 
had the above-mentioned stronger passages to 
rest our argument upon. Such are, for instance, 
" Non potest videri sanguis ejus, quo redempti 
et vivificati sumus, esse in calice quando vinum 
desit^'," instead of non potest esse ov fieri sanguis 
ejus — in calice. And again, " Quia passionis 
ejus intentionem in sacrificiis omnibus facimus 
(passio est enim Domini sacrificium quod of- 
ferimus) [instead of, Dominus est enim hostia 
quam ofFerimus, or the like,] nihil aliud quam 
quod ille fecit fa cere debemus'." 

Surely we have here stronger evidence than 

nature of the Eucharist altogether, by removing wholly the 
thing signifying ; so that there is no outward sign. More- 
over in making a vuracle of their transubstantiation, they 
deprive the presence of Christ in the Eucharist of all rnys- 
tery : and the solemn name of the Sacrament of the Altar, so 
common in the old Fathers, the slupe?idous wijs/erie.s, is really 
inapplicable to that Sacrament according to their view of it. 
Nor should it be forgotten, that they thus lov^er a mystery 
into a miracle, which is spiritually a much inferior thing 
{greater things than these shall he do; because I go unto my 
Father; John xiv. 12. see also John v. 20. and i. 50.) in order 
to provide that which we are expressly told profiteth no- 
thing; foY it is the Spirit that quickenelh, the flesh projiteth 
nothing. 

'^ Page 104. 

' Page 109. 



300 LIFE AND TIMES 

we could have expected, under the circum- 
stances, of Cyprian's judgment against Rome, 
in her innovations in the doctrine of the Eucha- 
rist : and were it not that it would extend this 
chapter unduly, I should show, that we have 
equally strong, and most express, testimony 
against those who deny the real presence of 
Christ in the Lord's Supper, and the spiritual 
virtual change of the elements in that solemn 
feast. On a review of the whole Epistle to 
Caecilius, we arrive (as it seems to me) at the 
following doctrines concerning the Eucharist, as 
taught by St. Cyprian : doctrines of the Catholic 
Church every one of them, and of the Church of 
England, because she is Catholic ; but not doc- 
trines of those who actually or virtually dissent 
from Catholic truth and communion ; not doc- 
trines of those who embrace the additional and 
superinduced dogmas of the Church of Rome. 

' In the holy Eucharist, there is a commemo- 
rative celebration of Christ's death ; for therein 
we ever mention Christ's passion, which is indeed 
the sum of our offering. But there is not a com- 
memorative celebration only, but also an oblation 
to God; and a feast upon the sacrifice of Christ : 
wherein we not only express our faith and thank- 
fulness in and for, but receive the benefits of, his 
death and passion : such as remission of our sins, 
and grace and strength, according as our need 
may be. And since our need is daily, daily we 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 301 

should receive this means of grace ; or, at least, 
as often as may be, as our Lord hath taught us 
to pray. Give us this day our daily bread. And 
in this heavenly feast we eat and drink Christ's 
body and blood virtually, while we eat and drink 
bread and wine actually ; the one being pressed 
with our teeth, the other being fed upon by our 
faith : and so that we receive not the benefit 
merely as being engaged in a solemn service, or 
merely as being in general, and by the whole 
ceremony, excited to a higher devotion, and so 
blessed with a more singular grace ; — but we re- 
ceive an appropriate and especial grace in the 
very act of receiving the consecrated elements ; 
perhaps even a peculiar blessing with each part 
of the Sacrament. Nor is it right to separate any 
essential part of the Eucharist from the rest ; and 
the cup is essential^ both in the consecration, and 
in the communion or receiving : therefore the 
cup may not be taken away, either from the 
Eucharist, or from the communicant ; and those 
who should take it away from the people would 
be guilty of an awful boldness in disturbing a 
divine institution, and an apostolic tradition and 
custom ; and of sacrilege against the Sacrament 
and the Church; and of tyranny and injustice 
towards those whom they should deprive of any 
portion of the Sacrament, with its appropriate 
graces and blessings. 

' As for those who leave the Church, they 



302 LIFE AND TIMES 

deprive themselves of all sacramental benefit in 
the Eucharist, which can only be validly adminis- 
tered in the Church. We need not much care if 
some of them teach a lower tone of doctrine con- 
cerning these tremendous mysteries, which they 
imagine that they celebrate ; since it is certain 
that they cannot descend in their doctrinal views, 
below the efficacy of their own ceremonial : for 
the Holy Ghost doth not animate a schismatical 
body ; and where the Holy Ghost is not, the 
Eucharist can receive no valid consecration, and 
convey no spiritual benefit. But though viewed 
relatively to themselves only, the doctrine of the 
schismatic may not deserve a refutation; yet if a time 
should come at which a spirit of liberalism should 
give importance in the eyes of those who maintain 
the Catholic communion, with too little of the 
Catholic spirit, to the reasonings which would 
disturb our doctrine, and subvert our discipline, 
(and since Cyprian's day perhaps such a time 
has come,) then it may be necessary to reply 
specifically to the objections of heretics, and to 
vindicate the mystery and dignity of the Holy 
Eucharist from their carnal reasoning, and from 
their irreverence.' 

If T have added a few light touches to com- 
plete this sketch, those who are best able to 
judge will confess that they are in total harmony 
with Cyprian's own hand : nay, were it not for 
the fear of extending this study over a yet more 



i 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 



303 



disproportionate part of the work, I believe I 
could fill up every part of the picture with 
the lineaments and colours of St. Cyprian 
himself. 



CHAP. XIII. 



REVOLUTIONS IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE. QUESTIONS OF 

FIDUS TOUCHING A LAPSED BISHOP, AND THE CASE OF 

INFANT BAPTISM. THE CASE OF FORTUNIANUS I OF 

BASILIDES AND MARTIALIS : OF MARCIANUS OF ARLES. 

THE INSOLENCE OF PUPIANUS. 



Meanwhile revolutions succeeded one another 
in the Roman empire, which materially benefitted 
the external condition of the Church. We 
have already mentioned the loss of the Decii in 
the Autumn of 251, and the renewal of the per- 
secution by Gallus. The Goths, before whom 
the Decii had fallen, though, or rather because, 
their retreat had been purchased at a great price, 
still remained formidable enemies of the Roman 
crown and empire : and while Gallus was re- 
posing in the luxuries of his capital, ^milianus, 
the governor of Pannonia and Maesia, had ad- 
vanced against the Barbarians in Illyria, and 
repulsed them. The money collected for a tribute 
to the Goths, was converted by the victorious 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 305 

general to a more popular and more politic use ; 
distributing it as a donation to the legions, he 
was proclaimed Emperor on the field. Gallus, 
who went to meet the usurper, was deserted by 
his army, and murdered ; and ^Emilianus was 
confirmed by the senate in the dignity conferred 
on him by the army. This was in the April of 
253. 

But the avenger of Gallus tarried not long. 
Valerian had been sent to bring the legions of 
Gaul to Germany, to the aid of Gallus : and 
though too late to save his master, he arrived in 
time to receive the fruits of his deposition and 
murder, without the guilt of either. At the 
approach of Valerian, ^Emilianus was slain by his 
army, and Valerian was acknowledged emperor 
by the Roman world, with more of unanimity 
than usually appeared on such occasions. 

The disturbances in the empire following the 
revolt of iEmilianus, had occasioned a partial 
repose in the Church : and Valerian seems to 
have made it one of the earliest acts of his 
government, to confirm the security of the Chris- 
tians. In the first dawn of a less troubled day, 
the chair of Lucius, at Rome, had been filled by 
the election and consecration of Stephen, on the 
thirteenth of May, (253,) after it had been 
vacant eight days. And now that a serene day 
had fully opened upon the Church, Cyprian took 



306 LIFE AND TIMES 

the earliest opportunity to convoke a provincial 
synod of the African Bishops. At this synod 
sixty-six Bishops were assembled ; and from their 
consistory an answer was returned to an Epistle 
of one Fid us, (of whom we know nothing,) in 
which two questions hadbeen submitted to Cyprian, 
the answers to both of which are important, as 
affording the synodical judgment of a provincial 
council of those days, with the important con- 
currence of Cyprian, upon two points of primitive 
discipline and order. 

Victor, a Presbyter, had lapsed; and Therapius, 
Bishop of Bulla, had received him to communion, 
before he had fulfilled the appointed penitential 
course. Of this Fidus wrote to acquaint Cy- 
prian ; and he, with his associates at the Synod, 
proceeded to reprimand Therapius, who was 
one of their number ; but determined that 
Victor should retain the privilege improperly, 
though with a Bishop's authority, extended to 
him. 

Here we have the important rule recognised, 
that the act of a Bishop (and by parity of 
reasoning of any other ecclesiastical Minister) 
may be valid, though it be improper and ir- 
regular ; that is of course, provided that the 
act itself, supposing it to be done with every cir- 
cumstance of propriety, is within the limits of his 
office. For the judgment of the Bishops pro- 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 307 

ceeded upon the principle, that the peace of the 
Church once given, in whatever manner, by a 
Bishop, ought not to be recalled *. 

The second question of Fidus related to the 
baptism of new-born infants. He had declared 
his opinion, that they ought not to be baptized 
within the second or third days from their birth ; 
with a doubt whether they ought not to be kept 
unbaptized even till the eighth day : arguing for 
the first delay, that children at their birth were 
in such a sense unclean, as to present a re- 
pulsive appearance, and to make us naturally 
unwilling to impart to them the kiss of peace, 
which was in those days a part of the ceremonial 
of Baptism^: and grounding his preference for 
the still longer interval on the analogy of Baptism 
with the Jewish rite of Circumcision. The issue 
of this appeal to Cyprian is conclusive against 
the doctrine and practice of Antipasdobaptists ; 
and the question of Fidus, both from the answer 
which it elicited, and from the form in which it 
is proposed, is almost as important in its results, 
as it is in itself unsound and absurd. For it is 
inconceivable that Fidus should have grounded 
his objection against baptizing until after the 
second or third day on such a whimsical reason, 
if there had been the shadow of an argument 
in his favour from the practice of the Church. 

'" Ep. lix. p. 98. 

^ See Bingham, Orig. Ecc. xii. iv. 5. 

x2 



308 LIFE AND TIMES 

And as for his reason for deferring Baptism until 
the eighth day, because of the analogy between 
Baptism and Circumcision, this argument, which 
is neither absurd nor fanciful, but in itself pious 
and reasonable enough, must on that very account 
have already prevailed with the Church, unless 
the point had been otherwise settled by Apo- 
stolic and Catholic usage. So that by a singular 
infelicity, the reasonableness of the arguments of 
Fidus, where they are reasonable, tells as much 
against his cause, as their absurdity, where they 
are absurd. 

It is to be observed, moreover, that the rea- 
soning of Fidus from the analogy of Baptism with 
Circumcision, for delaying Baptism for eight 
days, is precisely opposed to the reasoning of the 
Antipaedobaptists of later ages, who will not 
admit any analogy at all, extending to the age of 
the recipients, between the initiatory rites of 
Judaism and Christianity. 

I have anticipated the answer to the question 
proposed by Fidus : it was simply, that Baptism 
is to be denied to none, on account of their youth 
or age. As for the strange fancies of Fidus, St. 
Cyprian reminds him, (and the allusion contains 
a hidden rebuke,) that to the pure all things are 
pure ; and that since God fashioneth us even in 
the womb, the new-born babe coming more im- 
mediately from the hands of God, rather claims 
our more affectionate and reverential embrace. 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 309 

When Elisha raised the widow's son, he put his 
own mouth and each of his limbs on the mouth 
and corresponding members of the child ; a thing 
not to be understood literally, or, at least, not 
without a spiritual meaning ; for the different 
dimensions of the man and of the child seem to 
forbid such a contact : herein then we are taught, 
that when once fashioned by the hand of God, 
all men are in a spiritual and divine sense 
equal. As for Circumcision, the type was done 
away, when the antitype appeared ; and Christ 
rising on the eighth day, or the day after the 
sabbath, procured for us a spiritual circumcision, 
into which we may be baptized at any time ; 
and, in a word, if there be a difficulty in the 
admission of any to the laver of regeneration and 
the sacrament of remission, it should rather seem 
to affect those old and hardened offenders, who 
have added to their original corruption, many 
and long offences ; and not infants, who are 
personally guiltless, and bear the sin and death 
only of the race from which they spring. 

In the too hasty admission of Victor to com- 
munion, we have already seen an instance of the 
usual attendants upon a temporary repose in the 
Church, after persecution. We are now called 
on to notice several other instances of a like 
kind, though of much greater importance ; for 
the attention of Cyprian was now variously 
occupied by the return of Bishops in Africa, in 



310 LIFE AND TIMES 

Spain, and in Gaul, to the exercise of the 
spiritual functions from which they had been 
justly and canonically deposed for apostacy. 
The first case, which is also the simplest, and the 
least important in itself and in its results, is that 
of Fortunianus, Bishop of Assuri. It may be told 
in a few words. 

Fortunianus had fallen in the late persecution 
into the most grievous form of apostacy, having 
sacrificed to idols, and incurred the extreme 
penalty of the Sacrificati^ But after the per- 
secution had ceased, he looked back with regret 
on the forfeited honours and emoluments of his 
Episcopal functions**, and endeavoured again to 
obtrude himself into the office which he had thus 
voluntarily rejected ; and of which, so far as we 
are able to judge from the slight notices that we 
have of him, he had never been worthy. It 
seems probable, that, on the defection of For- 
tunianus, Epictetus had been chosen to succeed 
him ; for it is to him by name, together with 
the Assuritani in general, that Cyprian directs 
his Epistle ; and to whom he declares the neces- 
sity of maintaining in this, as in every instance, 
the discipline of the Church ; which appointed^ 
that persons in the situation to which Fortunianus 
had degraded himself, should never, even after 

<: "Post gravem lapsum." Ep. Ixiv. p. 110. "Quasi 
post aras diaboli accedere ad altare Dei fas sit." p. 111. 
'•■' " Stipes, et oblationes, et lucra desiderant." p. 111. 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 311 

long penance, rise to any station above that of 
the hiy communicants. As for Fortunianus, he 
says that he had better have spent his time in 
the appointed and appropriate penance, than 
sought to approach the Altar of God, after 
having sacrificed to Devils ; or to exhort others 
to fidelity and courage, having proved himself 
a coward and an apostate. If any man worship 
the beast and his image, he shall be tormented in 
the presence of the holy Angels ; and shall he 
who is thus marked out for eternal wrath venture 
to approach God in so sacred a character, wherein 
not he only, but the people also are concerned ? 
Without the Holy Ghost is no Eucharist ; and 
how can he who has denied his Lord, and despises 
the discipline of the Church, to which the Holy 
Ghost is promised, look for that Spirit to sanctify 
his ministrations ? Fortunianus, then, was on 
no account to be restored to his forfeited Epis- 
copate. 

I know not that we have any farther account 
of Fortunianus in ecclesiastical history, and sup- 
pose therefore that the judgment of Cyprian was 
held conclusive by all parties. 

A greater complication of circumstances, and 
the bearing of the whole on the claims of the 
Church and Bishop of Rome, make the next 
instance in which the judgment of Cyprian was 
sought on a like occasion far more important. 
Basilides and Martialis, two Spanish Bishops, 



312 LIFE AND TIMES 

had fallen into many very heinous offences, in the 
greater part of which they were equally impli- 
cated : they had incurred the guilt of the Libel- 
latici, one of those classes into which the lapsed 
were distributed for the purpose of apportioning 
their ecclesiastical penance. The separate offences 
of these two delinquents Cyprian himself enume- 
rates in the following order : Basilides, besides 
his apostacy, had blasphemed God in sickness, 
a crime which he himself confessed ; Martialis 
had often sat with the college of the heathen 
priests, at the gross and obscene feasts of the 
Gentiles ; and had followed also the heathen 
rites of sepulture for his sons, depositing their 
remains with the bodies of aliens and idolaters : 
besides which, both had been guilty of other 
offences. 

Basilides, conscience stricken at the compli- 
cation of guilt with which he was overwhelmed, 
had voluntarily confessed his unworthiness to 
retain his Episcopal functions, and had retreated 
into the rank of penitents ; confessing that he 
could justly look for no greater lenity, than to be 
received in due time as a lay-communicant. 
Martialis has left no record of his repentance 
even for a time ; and there is no hint that he 
ever abdicated his Episcopal chair, or concurred 
in the justice of the sentence by which he was 
deprived : both however were judicially de- 
posed from the Order which they had disgraced ; 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 313 

I say both, for I conceive that the voluntary 
secession of Basilides would not have so voided 
his chair as to make the appointment of his suc- 
cessor canonical, which however Cyprian declares 
it to have been : or perhaps his secession was 
coetaneous with the sentence of the Bishops ; 
and-, like Uzziah, " they thrust him out from 
thence ; yea, himself hasted also to go out, be- 
cause the Lord had smitten him." However, 
though it is not actually mentioned, I can only 
suppose that a synod of Bishops, having adjudged 
the case of both delinquents, declared their seats 
void, and proceeded to consecrate other Bishops 
as their successors. This would have been ac- 
cording to the universal custom of the Church ; 
it is not too much, therefore, thus to fill up the 
blank in the history. 

However this was, IVlartialis determined, if 
possible, to maintain the dignity by cunning % 
which he had forfeited by crime : and Basilides 
also, repenting of his repentance, and lamenting 
not his sins but his degradation, when it kept 
him from the high station which he had held, in 
a Church no longer persecuted ; endeavoured 
also by a bold and nefarious policy, to regain his 
Episcopate. He sent, therefore, a false statement 
of the whole affair to Stephen, Bishop of Rome, 
entreating that he would communicate with him 

f Nee Martiali potest profuisse fallacia quo minus ipse 
quoque delictis gravibus involutuS;, &c. Ep. Ixviii. p. lip. 



314 LIFE AND TIMES 

as with a Bishop of the Church ; and hoping to 
deceive the distant Prelate into such a measure, 
and thus to obtain the powerful countenance of 
his support. The fraud of Basilides succeeded 
to his heart's content. Stephen was deceived, 
and endeavoured to restore him to his forfeited 
dignity. But the principles of Catholic polity 
were not to be so readily surmounted ; and though 
he succeeded in the means, Basilides wholly 
failed in the end which he had in view. 

Yet for a while he seemed to triumph ; and 
Martialis shared in the temporary advantage of 
his scheme. The important sanction of Stephen's 
support induced many to receive Basilides again, 
as if he had been duly restored to his forfeited 
dignity, and to the Episcopal communion : and the 
similarity of their cases probably induced them 
to associate Martialis with Basilides, as equally 
worthy of the same lenity ^ But those who duly 
respected the sanctity of the Episcopate and the 
Apostolic order of the Church, still adhered to 
the communion of Felix and Sabinus, who had 
been consecrated to fill the chairs of the two 
apostates, in spite of the declared or inferred 
judgment of the Bishop of Rome. 

^ I have found it impossible to separate exactly between 
the acts of those two delinquents, and to give a clear history 
of Martialis, without sometimes associating him with 
Basilides, (where history does not speak explicitly,) whose 
case is more fully narrated. 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 315 

These virtuous and wise Christians, however, 
sought farther support in the concurrence of 
Cyprian, and accordingly wrote to him an ac- 
count of what had passed, asking his advice. 
He wrote therefore the Epistle, from which we 
derive all our information on this suhject, to the 
people of Legio, Asturia, and Emerita, who 
were chiefly concerned in the decision of the 
question. In this Epistle he most clearly and 
unhesitatingly declares, that the favourable judg- 
ment of Rome in such a case was nothing worth : 
that Basilides had added to the catalogue of his 
offences, already sufficiently numerous, by ventur- 
ing to appeal to Rome : that they who retained 
his communion on the ground of a favourable 
judgment from Rome were mistaken in their 
principle, and wrong in their conduct : and that 
those who neglected in this case the decree of 
Pope Stephen, and maintained the Catholic dis- 
cipline of the Church, were worthy of all praise. 
And now this Epistle of Cyprian is a standing 
record of Catholic principles, in direct opposition 
to more than one branch of the usurped authority 
of the Bishop of Rome ^. 

^ Whatever concerns the Papal supremacy^ I have viewed 
in the light of Cyprian's history and writings in a former 
work: '^ The testimony of St. Cyprian against Rome; an 
Essay towards delennining the judgment of St. Cyprian, 
touching Papal Supremacy." To this I shall take the liberty 
of referring, when that particular branch of our controversy 
with Rome is in question. 



316 LIFE AND TIMES 

Another event occurred about this time, in 
which the interference of St. Cyprian was ear- 
nestly sought, after an ineffectual appeal to 
Stephen, Bishop of Rome ; and in which the 
conduct of Cyprian admirably exemplifies his 
principle of the equal and concurrent jurisdiction 
of Bishops ; while the whole affair greatly mag- 
nifies his importance in the Church of that age, 
and displays at the same time his practical 
wisdom, and his decision of character. 

It will be remembered how decidedly the 
schism of Novatian in the Church of Rome had 
been repudiated, and how promptly his errors 
had been condemned by the whole body of 
Catholic Bishops. But Marcianus, Bishop of 
Aries, had joined the party of Novatian, and 
embraced those erroneous principles of discipline, 
according to which those who had once fallen 
were refused the privilege of penance, and cut off 
from all hope of being received again into Church 
communion. Upon this Faustinus, Bishop of 
Lyons, a neighbouring see, wrote to Stephen of 
Rome ; who, both for the importance of his see, 
and for the especial degree in which that Church 
had been affected by the schism and error of 
Novatian, was the Bishop most concerned, and 
whose judgment should naturally have the 
greatest weight ; beseeching him to interfere in 
this extremity, for the maintenance of the Catho- 
lic faith and unity. This request of Faustinus 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 317 

had been accompanied with the like appeal from 
other Bishops in the Gallican Provinces ; but at 
present Stephen had not been moved to give any 
attention to the case. 

In this supineness of Stephen, Faustinus once 
and again applied to Cyprian ; who was next to 
Stephen in adventitious importance, whether 
in general from the greatness of his see, or 
in the present question from his having been 
much engaged with proceedings touching the 
case of Novatian ; and whose Episcopate gave 
him an equal right to interfere, (unless he himself 
greatly mistook the principles , of the Catholic 
Church;) while his personal character, and his 
greater experience in the Episcopate, elevated 
him in moral influence even above the Bishop of 
Rome, lately elected, and a man, as his after 
history proves, scarce worthy to sustain the 
dignity which descended upon him from Saint 
Cornelius. 

Cy})rian, then, bearing in mind the duty of 
the Episcopal office, to sustain the sound part of 
the Church at all times against the encroachments 
of heresy and schism, having been thus twice 
appealed to, wrote to Stephen ^, to move him 
to exertion on this occasion, and to sug- 
gest (unless one who reads the Epistle will 
rather say to dictate) the course which he 
should pursue. Having briefly mentioned the 

' Ep. Ixvii. p. 115. 



318 LIFE AND TIMES 

circumstances before related, and touched upon 
the duty of Bishops in such a case, he proceeds : 
^^ You ought therefore to write very ample letters 
to our fellow Bishops in Gaul, that they may no 
longer suffer Marcianus, in his pride and obsti- 
nacy, and in his enmity against true piety and 
the peace of the Church, to insult over our whole 
college, as one not excommunicated by us, but 
as one who has long boasted, that following in 
the steps of Novatian, he has voluntarily seceded 
from our fellowship ; whereas in fact Novatian, 
whom he follows, has been long ago decreed ex- 
communicate, and an enemy to the Church." .... 
" How absurd is it, then, dearest brother, that in 
spite of the excommunication and total repudia- 
tion of Novatian by the Bishops of the whole 
world, we should now suffer his satellites to make 
a jest of us, and to erect themselves into judges 
of the true majesty and dignity of the Church ! 
Let letters be directed by you to the province 
and people of Aries'', that when Marcianus has 
been excommunicated, they may proceed to elect 
another in his place; and that the flock of Christ, 

^ hiprovinciam et ad plehem Arelate consistantem : and before, 
Ad coepiscopos nostros. The letters directed to the Bishops of 
Gaul probably respected the judicial sentence against Mar- 
cianus, which they alone could pronounce, and the conse- 
quent excommunication, of which they were the proper 
ministers. The letters to the people of Aries respected, 
doubtless, the election of a successor to the deprived delin- 
quent, in which they were not without a voice. 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 319 

which is at present scattered and wounded by him, 
and cast under reproach, may be again collected 
together." 

Cyprian proceeds through the rest of the Epistle 
io state and apply the principles of ecclesiastical 
polity, on which his interference was grounded, 
and to urge Stephen by every inducement to 
make the necessary exertions : " The numerous 
body of Bishops," says he, '^ is compacted with 
the cement of mutual agreement, and by the 
bond of unity ; that if any one of our number 
should endeavour to introduce heresy, and to tear 
and scatter the flock of Christ, the rest may 
interfere, and like good shepherds gather the 
Lord's sheep into one flock. For what, if some 
port has become unsafe by the destruction of its 
breakwaters ; do not the sailors run into other 
neighbouring ports, where they may enter without 
danger, and ride in safety? Or if some inn on 
the road be infested and occupied by brigands, 
so that whoever enters it is in danger of being 
robbed ; do not travellers, so soon as this is 
known, seek safer inns on their journey, where 
they may lodge in security and peace ? And so 
it should be now with us, that we may receive 
our brethren, who are driven against the rocks of 
Marcianus, and seek the safe harbour of the 
Church, and that we may afford to them ad- 
mission, into such a safe inn as that which }s 
mentioned in the Gospel, where those who have 



320 LIFE AND TIMES 

fallen among thieves and been wounded, may be 
hospitably received and attended to." 

And afterwards; " Let him not pronounce but 
receive sentence ; nor let him act as if it were 
his part to judge the College of Bishops, wheir 
he is himself condemned by their whole number. 
For the glorious reputation of our predecessors, 
the blessed martyr Cornelius and Lucius, is to be 
maintained ; whose memory since we honour, 
much more should you, who are their vicar and 
successor, exalt and maintain it by the weight of 
your authority. For they, when they were full 
of the Spirit of God, and were going to martyr- 
dom, thought, with the consent of us all, that 
the lapsed should be restored to the peace of the 
Church." ....." Signify to me in plain terms, 
who is substituted in the place of Marcianus at 
Aries, that I may know to whom to refer our 
brethren, and to whom to write." 

We may suppose that this Epistle of Cyprian 
to Pope Stephen had the desired effect ; we 
hear not, that I know of, any thing more of 
Marcianus. However, whatever may have been 
its use then, it is now one of our most valuable 
monuments of antiquity, towards a just estimate 
of the authority of the Bishop of Rome : the 
substance of this letter, and still more its tone, 
and the circumstances out of which it arose, 
where an appeal was made to a Bishop of Car- 
thage, subsequent to a similar appeal to the 



i 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 321 

Bishop of Rome, cannot be fairly reconciled with 
the present system of Papal Supremacy'. 

There is something of interest in the character 
and practices of such men as Novatian ; whose 
name survives in a party which they originate, 
and in which their erroneous principles are em- 
bodied ; while such men as Fortunianus, Marci- 
anus, Basilides, and Martialis, remembered only 
for some single scene in which they bore a dis- 
graceful part, would swell the pages of history to 
worse than no purpose, but that their very vices, 
calling for the interference of better men, serve 
as occasions for the practical application of 
principles which are never antiquated, and never 
useless. One Pupianus, of whom we have next 
to speak, falls even into a lower rank than these 
latter ; and without exciting a tinge of interest, 
or giving occasion for any thing more than the 
display of patience and forbearance, by his im- 
pertinence and conceit, obliges us to record 
his name and his folly : and yet even to him we 
owe something ; for the marvellous condescension 
of Cyprian in affording a circumstantial refu- 
tation of his charges, and a full vindication of 
his own character, has supplied us with many 
facts, of which we have availed ourselves in the 
former portions of this work. 

1 See Barrow on the Pope's Supremacy, p. 346. Ed. Oxon. 
1836; or the Testimony of St. Cyprian against Borne, pp. 110 
et seq. 

Y 



322 LIFE AND TIMES 

The very salution of the Epistle of Cyprian, to 
which we allude, has been supposed to afford 
an indication of one of the impertinences of 
Pupianus : " Cyprian, who is also called Thas- 
cius, to his brother Florentius, who is also called 
Pupianus, health!" Thus writes Cyprian, and the 
most probable reason for this strange address is, 
that Pupianus had insolently addressed him by 
his heathen appellation Thascius, as if to deny 
his worthiness of the Christian name ; an un- 
righteous taunt^ w^hich Cyprian merely retorts, 
by reminding him also of his Gentile cognomen. 

Not to take up too much time in repeating 
either the accusation of Pupianus, or the vindi- 
cation of St. Cyprian, we may gather, that in 
general Pupianus, who had held communion with 
Cyprian before the Decian persecution, and had 
even admired his singular virtue and humility, had 
been so much puffed up by his own confession, 
while Cyprian had discreetly used his freedom to 
retire till the heat of the persecution was past, 
that he not only judged himself exalted far 
beyond Cyprian in dignity, but even erected 
himself into a judge of his character, and a 
reprover of his actions. Nor yet did he content 
himself with a harsh judgment upon this parti- 
cular act; but making his own inferences from 
the past occurrences, he attributed all those 
unhappy dissentions which had divided the Church 
on occasion of Novatian's schism, to the in- 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. .S23 

judicious and haughty conduct of the Bishop of 
Carthage : and forgetting what was due to the 
office and dignity of a Bishop, he believed 
without farther inquisition, whatever base report 
the enemies of Cyprian invented, though they 
were some of them such as it is shameful to 
mention, and the very Gentiles abhor. Actuated 
by such shameless reports, Pupianus ventured to 
declare Cyprian unworthy of the Episcopate, and 
to renounce his communion. 

Cyprian does not evade any of these charges, 
nor hesitate to commend himself, as the Apostle 
Paul had done, when circumstances made it 
necessary. He reminds Pupianus, that the pains 
of persecution had not fallen on him alone, 
saying with something of irony, " The approach- 
ing persecution lifted you up, indeed, to the very 
highest dignity of martyrdom ; but me it de- 
graded with the oppressive w^eight of a pro- 
scription, when it was publicly proclaimed. If 
any one possesses or retains any of the goods of 
Ccecilius Cyprian, a Bishop of the Christians ;— 
that those who would not believe me to be a 
Bishop, by the choice of God, might at least 
afford credit to the proscription of the Devil." 
The accusation of pride, Cyprian refutes from 
the testimony of the Gentiles, and from the 
former admission of Pupianus himself; and most 
justly retorts it upon the insolent assailant. The 
general charges he repudiates by the witness of 

y2 



3-24 LIFE AND TIMES 

the whole Church, both of the Clergy, and of the 
laity ; of holy widows and virgins ; of martyrs, 
and of confessors from their prisons. But after 
all, the burden of his vindication against the 
report of aliens and schismatics, rests on the 
higher ground of his sacred office : and he pleads 
the dignity and sanctity of his Episcopate in 
a tone, which could not be assumed in a parallel 
case with any effect in these days, when we have 
learned to look on sanctity without reverence, 
and on dignity without fear. 

^^ Is it to be supposed," he asks, " that God, 
who suffereth not a sparrow to fall to the 
ground without His knowledge, should suffer 
Bishops to be ordained without His providence ? 
If you believe such revolting reports against me, 
what is it but to believe, that neither by God, 
nor through him. Bishops are appointed ? Is my 
own testimony of myself greater than the witness 
of God ? And yet now I am called to answer 
the accusations of men ungodly, cut off from 
the Church, and deprived of the Holy Ghost, 
though the witness of God is and has been with 
me, in my Episcopate "". Is there no force still in 

'" This principle is preserved in the Scottish Episcopal 
Church ; or, as I should rather speak, in the Church Ca- 
tholic in Scotland ; which declares in one of its Canons, 
(XXXVI.) " No accusation shall be received against a 
Deacon, or Presbyter, or Bishop, unless proceeding from 
and supported by the testimony of credible persons, who are 
regular communicants in the Scottish Episcopal Church." I 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 325 

the example and precepts of Christ and of the 
Apostle, who would not insult and revile God's 
High Priest ; but taught us not to speak evil 
of the ruler of the people of God ?" 

*' What pride ! what arrogance ! That rulers 
and Bishops should be called before your tri- 
bunal ; and that^ unless we are acquitted before 
you, and absolved by your sentence, Lo ! for 
these six years past the brethren have had no 
Bishop, the people no leader, the flock no 
pastor, the Church no ruler, Christ no repre- 
sentative, and God no priest ! Let Pupianus, 
forsooth, be brought in, to ratify the judgment of 
God and of Christ, lest so great a number of the 
faithful, who have been gathered into the Church 
under our Episcopate, should seem to have de- 
parted without the hope of salvation : lest the 
multitude of converts should be adjudged to 
have received, through us, a baptism void of 
grace, and of the Holy Spirit : lest peace and 
communion, extended to so many penitents, 
should be null, without your confirmation ! 
Deign, then, now at least, to pronounce your 
sentence upon us, and to ratify our Episcopate 
by your recognition ; that God and Christ may 

take this opportunity of observing, that the constitution and 
state of a Church which we hold to be Catholic, and with 
which, therefore, we maintain communion, is not the most 
unappropriate part of the information of an Anglican 
Churchman. 



3-26 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CYPRIAN. 

be at liberty to acknowledge with thanks^ that 
by you a Priest has been restored to their altar, 
and a ruler to their people !" 

In such a strain does Cyprian continue his 
letter, which he closes in these words : ^' Such 
is the answer which I have made in the innocency 
of my conscience, and in my full trust in my 
Lord and my God. You have my letter, I have 
yours. At the last day both will be read over 
before the judgment-seat of Christ '^." 

" Ep. Ixix. p. 124. 



CHAP. XIV. 

THE QUESTION OF THE BAPTISM OF HERETICS, AND THE 

CONTROVERSY ARISING OUT OF IT. ITS ORIGIN IN ASIA 

minor: IT IS DISCUSSED IN A SYNOD AT CARTHAGE. 

Cyprian's letter to the bishops of numidia. — the 

character of several objections against his rule. 

a synod of seventy-two bishops assembled at car- 
THAGE TO DETERMINE THE QUESTION. — CYPRIAN's AC- 
count to stephen of the proceedings of the synod. 

Cyprian's letter to jubaianus. 



The great controversy concerning the rebap- 
tizing of heretics, which is certainly the most 
remarkable event that has engaged our atten- 
tion, both in its conduct and in its consequences^ 
had ah'eady excited internal commotion in the 
Church, and was now to embroil the province 
over which Cyprian presided, in the general 
discord. 

There is some difficulty in determining the 
exact dates of the events to which this contro- 
versy gave rise, and the sequence of the several 
minor occurrences is often obscure. The long 
and learned note appended to Sect, xviii. Saec. III. 
of Mosheim's Commentaries of the Affairs of the 



328 LIFE AND TIMES 

Church before Constantine, seems to me to pre- 
sent the most judicious arrangement of the several 
events ; I shall take that historian therefore as 
my guide. Mosheim, however, is no guide in 
theology : and it is well, that though the records 
of those times have left the dates and order of 
certain occurrences obscure, they speak clearly 
enough on the theological questions which we 
are about to touch. 

The broader features of the controversy are 
readily traced in the Epistles of Cyprian and 
Firmilian, which afford also some indications of 
personal character, in the several actors in the 
busy scene, which may give interest to the re- 
pulsive but most important story of theological 
disputation. The character of Stephen, Bishop 
of Rome, must be allowed to suffer under the 
lash of his opponents' satire and arguments, 
almost as much as the subsequent claims of the 
Church over which he presided suffer from the 
development of truly catholic principles in the 
conduct of the controversy. If the Epistles of 
Stephen, which are lost, would have placed the 
conduct and character of that Prelate in a better 
light, than that in which they appear in the accounts 
of his opponents, I sincerely wish that they were 
forthcoming. His conduct must have been out- 
rageous indeed, to exceed the picture of him 
which the historian is obliged to present, from 
existing records ; and yet the Church of Rome 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 329 

has been suspected of suppressing his Epistles, 
that the character of the Pontiff might not suffer 
by the additional light which they would throw 
upon the history of those times. Perhaps, too, 
the historians of the Roman obedience have need- 
lessly confused the occurrences in which Stephen 
took so prominent and heartless a part : for this 
is certainly a page of history on which they can 
engage with no great complacency ; and they 
might have rejoiced if Raymond Missorius^ had 
succeeded in his attempt to prove, that the 
Epistles relating to this controversy, attributed 
to Cyprian and Firmilian, were forged by the 
Donatists of Africa, whose error sought support 
from those records. 

The question agitated was really one of vital 
importance. Whether or no those who had re- 
ceived baptism from the hands of an heretic, 
should be admitted into the Church by a second 
baptism : or rather, (for this is the more correct 
way of stating the question, though the other is 
the more common and popular,) whether the 
sprinkling by a heretic should be accounted any 
baptism at all ; and therefore, whether one who 
had received such a sprinkling should be bap- 
tized. This question had never been authorita- 
tively determined in the Church of Christ. The 
usage of Rome was indeed clear ; but yet no 
Church at that time imagined the local custom 
' A Franciscan of the last century. 



330 LIFE AND TIMES 

of Rome a rule for the conduct of all Christen- 
dom. It had been debated on several occasions ; 
and perhaps it had received several solutions 
in different provinces, each particular Church 
obeying the decision of its several Bishop, or of the 
synod of the province of which it formed a part. 
Meanwhile all agreed, if not in the particular 
rule or discipline, yet in the much more import- 
ant matter, that the Bishop was the centre of 
authority in such matters to his own Church, or 
the synod of provincial Bishops to each pro- 
vince ; and that they did right who followed the 
determination of the Bishop or the synod re- 
spectively, until the paramount authority of the 
Universal Church should determine the ques- 
tion'. 

In Asia, synods had been held at Synnada and 
Iconium, and some other places, in which it had 
been determined, that heretical baptism was 
invalid. In Africa, Agrippinus of Carthage had 
presided in a Council, at which the same deter- 
mination was adopted": but the Council was not 
held to be binding on the whole African Church; for 

2 St. Augustine to Januarius, Ep. liv. vol. ii. p. iGj. thus 
states the principle which should be adhered to in such 
matters. '' Faciat quisque quod in ea ecclesia, in quam 
venit, invenerit." In the same Epistle Augustine gives the 
celebrated rule of St. Ambrose, " ad quam forte ecclesiam 
veneris, ejus morem serva, si cuiquam non vis esse scandalo, 
nee quern quam tibi." 

^ Epistles Ixxi. and Ixxiii. 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 331 

we shall find a smaller synod of Bishops presently 
consulting Cyprian on the question, as if it had not 
been set at rest. In Rome, and in the dioceses 
in its provinces, the opinion seems always to have 
been, that they who came over from heresy, and 
had received baptism in their separation from 
the Church, should be received, nevertheless, 
w^ithout a second baptism ; at least Stephen, 
who advocated that rule, appeals to the tradition 
of his own Church in support of his opinion. 

The region in which this difference first created 
dissention with Rome, was in Asia Minor ; Cap- 
padocia, Cilicia, and the neighbouring provinces. 
Perhaps some Asiatic Christians may have ex- 
pressed their opinion upon the subject at Rome ; 
and if they did this imprudently, still more if they 
did it intemperately, they were highly culpable. 
Perhaps some converted heretics, who had been 
received into the Church at Rome without bap- 
tism, may have been rejected on their return to 
Asia : or some who had been rejected in Asia 
may have been received at Rome ; and in either 
case, the discipline of a particular Church, which 
every other Church ought to respect, was dis- 
honoured. But, from whatever causes, Stephen 
became all at once highly indignant at the error, 
as he thought it, of the Asiatic Churches, and 
wrote to Asia concerning Helenus and Firmilian, 
and the rest of the Bishops of those parts, threat- 
ening to withdraw from their communion, because 



332 LIFE AND TIMES 

they repeated the baptism of heretics ^ The 
letter of Firmilian, of which we shall presently 
have much to say, and of which we are all along 
making great use, shows, that this threat was 
carried into execution. 

While affairs were in this posture between Asia 
and Rome, Cyprian little thought of the storm 
which was gathering around him, and was soon 
to burst over his head. He was settling the 
state of his own Church and province, after the 
persecution, with the assistance of thirty-two 
Bishops assembled with him at Carthage. Dur- 
ing their session, a question was put to Cyprian 
by some Numidian Bishops (eighteen in number) 
upon the very matter which was then embroiling 
the Eastern Church with Rome. The letter of 
the Numidians is lost, but Cyprian's answer will 
afford a sufficient indication of its contents, and 
will put us in possession of his own judgment 
upon the disputed question, with that of the 
thirty-two Bishops assembled with him in coun- 
cil. 

This letter contains a very careful and com- 
prehensive statement of the principle upon which 
Cyprian and his adherents determined the ques- 
tion touching heretical baptism. St. Cyprian 
himself evidently views it in that light, for he 
again and again refers to it, as containing a clear 
statement of his opinions, and of the ground on 
•^ EusEBius vli. 5. 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 333 

which they rested. As it is very short, as com- 
pared with its importance, I shall give it entire. 

'' Cyprian and thirty-one others, to Januarius 
and the other Bishops of Numidia. 

'' When we were all assembled in council, we 
read, dearest brethren, your Epistle to us, on the 
matter of those who seem to have been baptized ^ 
among heretics and schismatics. Whether, when 
they came into the Catholic Church, which is 
one and true, they ought to be baptized ? And 
although you yourselves maintain, in constancy 
and purity, the Catholic rule upon that point ; 
yet, since you have thought good out of our 
mutual charity to consult us, we send you our 
opinion, which is not new, but the same which 
was established long since by our predecessors, 
and which we have observed ourselves, with as 
great unanimity as that which you have evinced ; 
for this we believe, and hold as an undoubted 
verity, that no one can be baptized out of the 
Church, since there is but one baptism appointed, 
and that in the holy Church ; and since it is 
written. They have left me, the fountain of living 
water, and have hewn out for the7nselves broken 

'' " Baptizati videntur." Cyprian constantly makes the 
distinction between a real and a seeming baptism : and thus 
he, quite as truly as Stephen, taught, that none could be re- 
baptized. St. Cyril says, " none but heretics are rebaptized, 
since their former baptism was not baptism." Catechesis, 
Introductory Lecture, p. 7- in the translation in the Library 
of Fathers, Oxon. 1838. 



334 ' LIFE AND TIMES 

fountains, which can hold no water ^ And again, 
another Scripture speaks in a voice of warning ; 
Abstain fro7n strange water, and of a fountain of 
strange water drink not ^ The water, therefore, 
should first be cleansed and sanctified by the 
Priest, that it may avail by its use in baptism 
to wash away the sins of him who is immersed in 
it : wherefore saith the Lord by the prophet 
Ezekiel, and I will sprinkle clear water upon you, 
and ye shall he clear from all your filthiness ; and 
from all your idols will I cleanse you; a new 
heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I 
put within you^. But how can he cleanse and 
sanctify the water, who is himself unclean, and 
upon whom the Holy Ghost is not ; for the Lord 
saith. Whatsoever the unclean person toucheth shall 
he unclean ^- ? Or how can one give to another 
remission of sins in baptism, who cannot himself 
lay down his own sins, being without the 
Church ? 

'■' Besides, the very intercession which is made 
at Baptism is a witness of the truth. For when 
we say, ' Dost thou believe in eternal life, and in 
the remission of sins by the holy Church F' we 
mean that remission of sins is not given except in 
the Church ; but that among the heretics, where 
the Church is not, sins cannot be remitted. 
They then who assert that heretics can baptize, 

fi Jer. ii. l']. ' Prov. vi. 24. 

^ Ezekiel xxxvi. 25, 26. " Numb. xix. 22. 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 



335 



must either change the mterrogation, or must 
vindicate the truth against their own opinion, 
by the very use of it ; unless, indeed, they contend, 
^hat even those have a Church whose baptism 
they admit. 

" Moreover, he who is baptized must also be 
anointed, that when he has received the chrism, 
that is the unction, he maybe indeed the anointed 
of God, and have in him the grace of Christ. 
Now there is a Eucharistic oblation of oil, from 
the matter of which the baptized are anointed, 
after the oil has been consecrated on the altar ; 
but he cannot have consecrated the creature of 
oil, who had neither an altar nor a church. 
Whence, again, there can be no spiritual unction 
among heretics, since it is quite clear that oil 
cannot be consecrated, and made an Eucharistic 
oblation, by them\ And we ought to bear in 

' This passage is difficult, and I have seen no explanation 
which removes the difficulty ; I have therefore ventured to 
render it paraphrastically, conveying an explanation together 
with a translation; yet by no means positively asserting that 
my explanation is the right one. The words in the original 
are as follows. " Porro aiilem Eucharistia est, unde baptizati 
unguuntiir oleo in altari sanctijicato. Sanctijicare autem non 
potint olei ci'eaturam qui 7iec altare hahiilt nee ecclesiam. 
Unde nee unctio spiritualis apud hcereticos potest esse, qiiando 
constet oleum sanctijicari ei Eucharistimn Jieri apud illos omnino 
non posse." The word Eucharistia here, has been always, so 
far as I know, made to refer to the Eucharist, or the Supper 
of the Lord, administered to the newly baptized. But 
though chrism and confirmation were held to be necessary 
to the completion of Baptism, I know not that the Eucharist 



836 LIFE AND TIMES 

mind the Scripture, Let not the oil of a siniier 

ever was : and at any rate, if he had then been speaking of 
the Supper of the Lord, Cyprian would have made it 
another member of the argument, and not confused it with 
the mention of the oil ; when he had already separated the 
mention of the oil from that of the water, which are much 
more on a par, and much more nearly connected theologi- 
cally speaking. He would have reasoned thus : The 
heretic cannot consecrate water, ergo he cannot baptize* 
He cannot consecrate oil, ergo he cannot baptize. Neither 
can he consecrate the Eucharist, ergo he cannot baptize. 
But as the reasoning of Cyprian stands, that third proof 
of his position is sadly confused with the second, to 
the great detriment of both ; that is, if, which I question, 
he accepted the third at all, as a part of his reasoning, 
or if he is there speaking at all of that oblation which is 
Kccr llo^KVj the Eucharist. This reasoning will be seen in 
its full force by those who will observe in how orderly 
a manner Cyprian advances, in this Epistle, from one 
step of his argument to another, closing each with a 
reference to Scripture. It will be felt by those who know 
how the Christians of that time were accustomed to speak 
of the tremendous mysteries of the Christian altar; and 
who know how very improbable it is, that such an one as St. 
Cyprian should thus speak of those mysteries, as it were, 
by the way, while the oil of chrism is the real and imme- 
diate subject of his reasoning. Thus, neither as an orderly 
reasoner, nor as a, theologian, can Cyprian be supposed to 
make any reference to the Eucharistic sacrifice in this 
passage. To speak, too, of the creature of oil, is quite 
analogous to speaking of the creatures of bread and wine; 
which is a usual way of designating those elements, when 
they were about to be sanctified by an Eucharistic oblation, 
and invocation of the Holy Ghost. Nor is the analogy between 
the consecrations of the oil and of the bread and wine too 
obscure to aiford propriety to such a similarity of phrases. 
St. Cyril of Jerusalem says, (Cat. Myst. iii 3 p, 268. of 
Church's translation,) in a passage, by the way, which 



i 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. ^ST 

anomt mine head^. And this warning the Holy 
Spirit gave beforehand in the Psalms, lest any, 
leaving his proper course, and wandering from 
the path of truth, should be anointed by heretics, 
and the enemies of Christ. 

" And, yet again, what sort of prayer can a 
sacrilegious and sinful priest offer for the baptized, 
since it is said, God heareth not a sinner; hut if 
any one worshippeth Him, and doeth His will, him 
He hearetW ? 

" But who can give that which he hath not ? 
or how can he, who has himself lost the Holy 
Spirit, minister spiritual gifts ? 

*^ On the whole then w^e conclude, that he is 
to be baptized and renewed, who comes as a 



renders it absolutely impossible that Cyril can have held 
the doctrine of transubstantiation. " Beware of supposing 
this to be plain ointment. For as the bread of the Eucha- 
rist, after the invocation of the Holy Ghost, is mere bread 
no longer, but the body of Christ; so also this holy ointment 
is no more simple ointment, nor (so to say) common, after 
the invocation, but the gift of Christ; and by the presence 
of His Godhead, it causes in us the Holy Ghost." And in 
the title of a prayer in the Apostolical constitution we find 
the very word Eucharist, as applied to a part of the cere- 
monial of unction ; EYXAPISTIA -m^] rov (avo-tikov fty^oy. 

r think I have said enough to shew, that the Eiicharistia 
of which Cyprian speaks may be connected with the oil of 
chrism, and not with the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper : 
and if it may be, some respect to Cyprian's reasoning will 
bring us to the conclusion, that it is connected with the oil 

" Ps. clxi. 5. LXX. and Vulgate. 

' John ix. 13. 



338 LIFE AND TIMES 

novice to the Church; and that he ought to be 
sanctified within her pale, by those who are them- 
selves holy ; since it is written. Be ye holy, for I 
am holy, saith the Lord''\' so, then, he who has 
been led into an error, and been baptized without 
the Church, let him put off this, among his other 
offences, in the true and catholic baptism, — that 
when he would have come to God, while he sought 
a true priest, he fell into the hands of a sacrile- 
gious one, through deceit and error. 

'' Finally, to consent to the validity of the 
baptism of heretics and schismatics is in effect 
to approve of it. For in this case, either all or 
none is validly performed. If the heretic could 
baptize, he could also give the Holy Ghost. But 
if he who is without the Church cannot give the 
Holy Ghost, because he is himself without the 
Holy Ghost, neither can he baptize the convert : 
for there is one baptism, and one Holy Spirit, 
and one Church, founded by the Lord Christ 
upon Peter, [or upon a rock":] so that in its very 
foundation it may bear the mark of unity. Hence 
it follows, that since among them everything is false 

'" Lev. xix. 2. 

° See the note of the Benedictine Editors. I have no 
objection to admit that the Church is founded on Peter: 
but since there can have been no temptation to convert 
Fetrimi into pelram ; while there has been such strong 
temptation to convert petram into Pelrum ; various read- 
ings in such passages really do look suspicious. However, 
the Romanists must be allowed the benefit of their character 
for integrity in such matters. 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. oSO 

and empty, nothing of their doing in such matters 
ought to be acknowledged by us. For what can 
be ratified and confirmed by God which they do 
who are called His enemies in the Gospel? He zcho 
is not with me is against me ; he who gathereth 
not with me scatter eth"". And the blessed Apostle 
Saint John also, guarding the commandments 
and precepts of his Lord, has written in his 
Epistle, Ye have heard that Antichrist shall come; 
even nozo are there many Antichrists, whereby we 
know that it is the last time. They went out from 
us, hut they were not of iis ; for if they had been 
of us, they would no doubt have continued with us"^. 
And from hence we ought to consider, whether 
they who are enemies of the Lord, and who are 
called Antichrists, can confer the grace of Christ. 
Wherefore we, who remain with the Lord, and 
maintain His unity, and administer the priesthood 
in His Church according as He has put us in 
charge, ought to repudiate and reject whatever 
His adversaries and Antichrists do, and to ac- 
count it as mere profanation. And to those who 
escape from error and pravity, and acknowledge 
the true faith of the one Church, we ought to 
communicate in all the sacraments of divine 
grace, and in the verity of unity and faith. 

" Dearest brethren, we wish you continued 
health^." 

*» Luke xi. 23. p 1 John ii. 18, 1 9. •» Ep. Ixx. 

pp. 124, 152, 126. 



340 LIFE AND TIMES 

Having given this Epistle entire, we have once 
for all put the reader in possession of Cyprian's 
judgment on the point at issue, from which he 
never swerved. As we follow the controversy, 
however, in its several turns, we shall mark such 
new arguments as were elicited by the circum- 
stances of the contest, and were adduced from 
time to time in answer to new objections. 

Though the Council from which the above 
Epistle was sent, thus confirming the determina- 
tion of a Numidian Synod, and following the 
steps of a former Synod in Carthage, may be 
supposed to have settled the question to the 
satisfaction of all Catholics in those provinces ; 
yet there were other parts of Africa w^hich were 
as yet unsupplied with any authoritative rule for 
the admission of heretics into the Church ; and 
whose Bishops, therefore, being left to their 
private judgment in this matter, might inno- 
cently differ in opinion and practice, one from 
another, and from the Numidian and Carthagi- 
nian Churches. Under such circumstances they 
would gladly obtain the advice of a Bishop, so 
eminent, both in character and station, as St. 
Cyprian ; especially after he had presided in a 
Council where the question had been debated 
and determined. Hence we find Cyprian writing 
to a Bishop in Mauritania, named Quintus, in 
answer to a request made through one Lucius, a 
Presbyter, that he would give him his opinion on 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 341 

that subject. " Lucius, our brother Presbyter, 
has informed me, dearest brother, of your wish," 
says Cyprian, '' that T should send you my judg- 
ment concerning those who have received the 
semblance of Baptism among heretics and schis- 
matics'." He sends therefore to Quintus a copy 
of the letter to the Numidians before given ; 
adding an answer to the objection, that there is 
but one baptism. '' Some will say," says he, '' that 
there is but one baptism. True, but that one 
must be in the one Catholic Church. But those 
who admit the baptism of heretics, as well as 
that of the Church, make two baptisms ; or else, 
which is still worse, prefer the profane and con- 
taminating sprinkling of the heretics, to the one 
true and lawful baptism of the Church Catholic. 
Or at any rate, to make but one baptism, yet to 
recognize the baptism of heretics, is to admit 
that heretics may truly baptize, and to allow 
them the power of washing, cleansing, and sancti- 
fying the spiritual man. But this is to grant too 
much to them ; for how can they give that 
which they have not themselves ? We do not 
say, then, that converts from them to the 
Church are to be r^baptized, but that they are to 
be baptized." 

Another objection, which 'Cyprian discusses 
in this Epistle, shows that the trick of meeting 
arguments by reasoning perfectly irrelevant, is 
' Ep. Ixxi. p. 126. 



342 LIFE AND TIMES 

by no means peculiar to these days. If the 
adversaries of truth can find something in ancient 
custom which looks like a support of their cause 
on the most superficial view, they are not de- 
terred from adducing it, though if it be examined 
more deeply, it tells altogether against them. 
They know that the mass of the people is taken 
only by the first aspect of things ; so that the 
desired effect will be already produced, before a 
more candid instructor can teach them to look 
below the surface. 

It had been a primitive and catholic custom, 
to receive those back again into the Church who 
had been baptized therein, but had left it, for a 
time, for the communion of heretics, by penance 
only and imposition of hands, without a second 
baptism. This custom respects a case utterly 
different from that which was now agitated ; and 
if it could be applied at all to the question, it 
would rather go to support the peculiar sanctity 
of Baptism administered in the Catholic Church : 
yet it was adduced, as establishing their point, by 
those who were for receiving without baptism 
schismatics, who had not been baptized in the 
Church. The fair statement of this argument is 
sufficient for its refutation, without the reasoning 
of Cyprian ; and I almost wonder, (especially 
since he opposes the misapplication of custom 
more than sufficiently by the mention of the true 
custom of Africa, founded on the decision of the 



I 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. .343 

Council which met under Agrippinus,) that he 
should condescend to meet it by showing that 
custom against reason is not to be followed. 
However, he was right in prudence to argue with 
men according to their folly : and in a future 
Epistle, (to Jubaianus,) with equal condescension, 
and practical wisdom, we find him refuting two 
other arguments equally irrelevant, which were 
adduced by the opponents of his opinion, that 
heretics should be received into the Church by 
Baptism. The two arguments to which I allude 
are, (1.) That the Church denied not a martyr's 
crown to them, who died in the true faith, 
though before Baptism : and, (2.) that those 
who had been baptized by Philip in Samaria 
were not rebaptized by Peter and John, but 
only received imposition of hands. Such are 
some of the arguments against which Cyprian 
had to contend. I shall not mention them again 
in their proper order : they deserve to be strung 
together for their absurdity, and not to form 
a link in the historical sequence of events. 

Cyprian's anxiety to determine this question 
with the greatest possible authority, seems most 
plainly to indicate, that he was aware of the full 
extent of the violence with which Stephen, Bishop 
of Rome, was likely to proceed against those who 
differed from him in opinion and practice. The 
anticipation of a future difference would make 
him in no degree disposed to submit his judg- 



844 LIFE AND TIMES 

ment to another^ or to yield upon any other 
ground than conclusive reasoning ; for he was 
certainly no slave to foreign influence, and no 
moral coward : but the coming struggle which 
could neither shake nor frighten him, would and 
should make him very desirous to determine the 
question, with the full concurrence of his com- 
provincial Bishops; both that the question might 
be discussed with greater opportunities of ar- 
riving at the truth ; and that the decision, when 
made, might carry with it the greater weight. 

Urged by these motives, he assembled, shortly 
after the last Synod had dispersed, a second 
Synod of seventy-two Bishops ; some being pre- 
sent from Numidia, in which province the ques- 
tion had been already determined in an assembly 
of eighteen Bishops, in accordance with the views 
of Cyprian, and his comprovincials. In this 
second Council the decision of the former was 
confirmed ; and a decree was also made upon 
another matter of discipline, whereby it was 
ordered, that those who had been ordained by 
schismatics, and even those who had received 
Orders in the Church, but had afterwards se- 
ceded, should be received, on their return to the 
Catholic Church, only to lay communion. 

Of the proceedings of this second Synod, 
Cyprian informs Stephen of Rome in the seventy- 
second of the Cyprianic Epistles. It will be 
interesting to the reader to observe the tone 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 345 

in which Cyprian speaks to the Roman Pontiff; 
and that upon a subject of such vital importance, 
as to justify, at least in Stephen's opinion, the 
breach of communion with those who ventured to 
oppose his views. 

*^ I found it necessary, for the discussion and 
determination of many points, to collect a Synod 
of several Bishops ; in which many things were 
canvassed and determined : and having decreed 
that those who have been washed without the 
Church, and stained with the contaminating 
touch of the water used by heretics and schisma- 
tics, ought to be baptized, when they come over 
to us, and to the one Church ; we thought it 
right to communicate this decree especially to 
you, that we might confer with your gravity and 
wisdom on a point which so nearly touches the 
authority of the priesthood, and the unity and 
dignity with which the Church Catholic is di- 
vinely appointed. We hold it insufficient to lay 
hands upon them for the receiving of the Holy 
Ghost, unless they also received the Baptism of 
the Church : for they can only be accounted sons 
of God fully sanctified, when they have been born 
again of both sacraments '", since it is written. 



"' That is, of the sacrament of water for the remission of 
sins ; and of imposition of hands for the receiving of the 
Holy Ghost: which latter is a sacrament in no other sense 
than the sign of the cross used in Baptism by us may be 
called a sacrament : and is not at all a sacrament in the 



346 LIFE AND TIMES 

unless a man he horn of zvater and of the Spirit, he 
cannot enter the hingdom of God, We find it 
recorded too, in the Acts of the Apostles, that 
this principle was fully recognized and preserved 
by the Apostles : so that, when the Holy Spirit 

limited polemical sense, in ^vhich wp say that there are but 
two Sacraments, and in which the Romanist says that there 
are seven. Imposition of hands was held a part and com- 
plement of the Sacrament of Baptism. 

To the learned it is sufficiently plain, that instances of the 
application of the term " sacramenUim," to any ordinance or 
other subject by the Fathers of the Church, are quite 
irrelevant in our controversy with Rome touching the num- 
ber of the Sacraments ; for we admit in every other than the 
limited sense in which the v. ord is used in t'lis controversy, 
that there are other Sacraments : whereas the Romanist will 
not admit, that in all those things called " sacramenta" by 
the writers in question, are Sacraments in the same polemical 
sense. We need not hesitate to speak of the sacrament of 
unity, oithe Lord's Prayer as a sacrament, of the sacrament of 
imposition of hands or co Jirmation, if only we be rightly 
understood to mean just so much as the Fathers meant, and 
no more : ard if more be necessarily intended, then the 
Romanist will be as little able to employ the terms " sacra- 
mentum nnitatis," as we to speak of the sacrament of con- 
jirmation. I know nothing that can better express our view 
of the matter, than the words of St. Augustine, " Sacra- 
mentis numero paucissimis, observatione facillimis, signifi- 
catione praestantissimis, societatem novi populi [^Dominus] 
colligavit; sicut est Baptismus Trinitatis nomine consecratus, 
communicatio corporis et sanguinis ipsius, et si quid aliud 
in Scripturis canonici> con.mendatur." \_Ep. liv. vol. ii. 
p. 164.] Thus does this gr?at Father clearly distinguish 
between the higher mysteries of Baptism and the Lord's 
Supper, and those which to avoid misconception we may call 
rather sacramental s than sacraments. 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. ;347 

had descended upon Gentiles in the house of 
- Cornelius the centurion, who were there present, 
warm in faith, and believing in the Lord with 
their whole heart, so that they blessed God in 
divers tongues, through the divine inspiration ; 
yet St. Peter, mindful of the divine ordinance, 
and of the Gospel, commanded that they should 
be baptized, who were already full of the Holy 
Ghost, that nothing should seem wanting to the 
perfect observance of the divine ordinance, in the 
conduct of the Apostles "." 

Then telling Stephen that he sends copies of 
his letters to Quintus and to the Bishops of 
Numidia, in which the grounds of this decision 
were discussed, Cyprian proceeds to mention the 
decree before alluded to, concerning the reception 
of lapsed ecclesiastics to lay communion ; and, 
finally, anticipating Stephen's rejection of the 
decision of the Council touching the baptism of 
heretics, he thus concludes : " These things we 
have made known to you, dearest brother, from 
regard to our mutual respect, and as befits my 
sincere regard for you ; trusting that your own 
piety and soundness in the faith will sufficiently 
commend to you what is itself religious and or- 
thodox. We know, however, that some men are 
unwilling to lay down opinions which they have 
once taken up, and are not easily persuaded to 

" Ep. Ixxii. p. 128. 



348 LIFE AND TIMES 

confess a change in their sentiments ; yet they 
can retain the opinions which they have once 
adopted as their own^ without sacrificing the 
peace and unity of their colleagues. And so we, 
in the matter before us, neither impose restraint, 
nor dictate a rule of proceeding to any man, 
since every Bishop has full right to administer 
the affairs of his own Church according to his 
own judgment, rendering to the Lord an account 
of his deeds." 

Another Epistle of Cyprian, written about the 
same t'me to Jubaianus, an African Prelate, puts 
us more fully in possession of the topics of con- 
troversy on this question, than any other of the 
records of these times. Jubaianus had proposed 
to Cyprian his own objections to his opinion ; 
and had sent also a letter from some nameless 
person, in which other difficulties were proposed. 
This double attack upon his opinion Cyprian 
fully meets. He first mentions the two Synods 
which had been held, and also his letter to 
Quintus, in which the rule was stated, with the 
principles on which it was founded. He then 
proceeds to answer objections. Some it seems 
argued, that since Novatian affected to baptize 
those who deserted to him from the Church, 
therefore the Church ought to receive heretics 
without baptism, lest Catholics should seem so 
far to symbolize with Novatian, and to have 
borrowed his custom. 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 349 

In answer to this notable argument, St. Cyprian 
shows, that, to be consistent, Novatian should 
have been baptized into his own heresy. He 
insinuates, that it would be as reasonable to put 
off the proper conduct of humanity, because in 
some things apes have imitated men ; as for the 
Church to desert her customs, because they had 
been aped by Novatian. And he argues, ad homi- 
nem, (and the argument is of very general appli- 
cation, and w^ell worth repeating,) '' Is it really 
to be held a sufficient reason for not doing this, 
that Novatian has done it? What then? since 
Novatian usurps the honour of an Episcopate, are 
we to renounce our Episcopacy? Or, because 
Novatian endeavours to erect an altar, and 
against all right to offer sacrifice, are we to 
desert our altar, and to relinquish our sacri- 
fice"?" 

An argument more worthy of Cyprian's at- 
tention occurs next : one, indeed, which hinged 
on the very principle on which the Church 
Catholic afterwards determined the present ques- 
tion. I find, says Cyprian, in the letter which 
you transmitted to me, a notion, that we ought 
not to enquire who was the minister of Baptism 
in any particular case ; since the baptized may 
receive remission of sins, according to that which 
he believed : as that Marcionites, for instance, 
need not to be baptized, since they have received 

o £/?. Ixxiii. 130. 



350 LIFE AND TIMES 

a semblance of Baptism^ in the name of Jesus 
Christ. 

Let us take Cyprian's solution of this difficulty 
in his own words. 

'' We ought therefore to examine the faith of 
those who believe^ out of the Church, to determine 
whether it be such as that they can on account of 
it obtain any grace. For if there be but one 
faith common to us and to heretics, there may 
be one grace also. If the Patripassians, for 
instance, the Valentiniani, the Ophitae, the 
Marcionites, and other pestilent sects, the very 
poison and dagger of the truth, confess the same 
Father, the same Son, the same Holy Spirit, the 
same Church, that we confess, they may share 
with us in our Baptism, since their faith also is 
one with ours. But, not to run through all the 
heretics, and all their follies and blasphemies, 
(since it is painful to speak of that, at the 
very knowledge of which one shudders and is 
ashamed,) let us examine the case of Marcion 
alone, of whom mention was made in the Epistle 
which you sent to me, whether the validity of his 
baptism can be reasonably admitted. 

Now the Lord, when he sent forth His disciples 
after His resurrection, taught them in what form 
they ought to baptize, saying. All power is given 
to me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, 
and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name 
of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. Sol 

Ghost. In these words Christ involves the 
doctrine of the Trinity^ and in the mystery of 
the Trinity were the nations to be baptized. 
Now does Marcion hold the doctrine of the 
Trinity ? Does he ascribe creation to the same 
Father with us ? Does he recognize the same 
Son, Christ born of the Virgin Mary, who is the 
Word made flesh, w^ho bare om* sins, who by His 
death conquered death, who was the first-fruits 
and the promise of the resurrection to us, in His 
flesh, so as to assure His disciples that they also 
should rise in the same flesh ? Far diflerent is 
the faith of Marcion, and of the rest of the 
heretics ! Yea, among them is nothing but error 
and blasphemy and contention, the foes of holi- 
ness and truth. How, therefore, can it be made 
to appear, that they who are baptized among 
them can receive remission of sins, and the grace 
of God, on account of their faith, when their very 
faith itself is a lie ? For if, as some imagine, one 
who is without the Church, can receive any thing 
according to his faith ; surely he must receive 
that which he believes ; he then who believes a 
lie cannot receive the truth ; but rather^ ac- 
cording to his faith, he receives impurity and 
profanation?." 

Cyprian also argues, that if the faith of a 
heretic might avail to his receiving the grace of 
Baptism, it would also avail to the receiving of 

p Ep. Ixxiii. pp. 130. 131. 



352 Life and times 

the grace of imposition of hands ; with which 
rite however all were for receiving them ; and 
after a long interval he proceeds : " There is no 
pretence for setting up the name of Christ 
against the truth in this matter^ and for saying 
that they who are baptized in the name of 
Jesus Christ, wherever and however, have re- 
ceived the grace of Baptism : whereas Christ 
Himself says, Not every one that saitli unto me 
Lord, Lord, shall enter Into the kingdom of 
heaven; and since He also warns us against being 
deceived by false prophets, and false Christs, 
coming in His name ; Many shall come in my 
name, saith he, saying, I am Christ, and shall 
deceive many ; but he adds, beware ; lo ! I have 
foretold yon all. Whence we learn, that we are 
not to receive and vindicate what arrogates 
the name of Christ, but only what is done 
according to the truth of Christ. It is true 
that the Apostles taught much of the name of 
Christ for the remission of sins ; but this w^as 
not as if the Son could profit any without or in 
opposition to the Father ; but that they might 
evince to the Jews, who boasted that they had 
the Father, that the Father would profit them 
nothing, unless they believed in the Son, whom 

He sent Finally, since after the 

resurrection the Apostles were sent forth to 
baptize the Gentiles in the name of the Father 
and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, how can 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 353 

some venture to say, that a Gentile baptized 
without the Church, yea, against the Churchy 
any where, and in whatever form, so that it be 
only in the name of Jesus Christ, can obtain 
remission of sins; when Christ Himself com- 
mands that the nations be baptized in the 
Trinity in Unity : unless, indeed, he who denies 
Christ is denied by Christ ; yet he who denies 
the Father, whom Christ Himself confessed, is 
not denied by Him ; and unless he who blas- 
phemes Him, whom Christ called His Lord and 
His God, shall be rewarded by Christ with 
remission of sins, and the sanctification of Bap- 
tism *'." And again : '' if one could be baptized 
among heretics, he might also receive remission 
of sins : and with remission of sins, sanctification ; 
and he is made the temple of God. But, I ask, 
of what God ? Not of the Creator ; for in Him 
he believes not. Not of Christ ; for he denies 
that Christ is God. Not of the Holy Ghost ; 
for since the Three are One God, how can the 
Holy Ghost be propitiated by him, who is the 
enemy either of the Father or of the Son'?" 

These passages, long as they are, are but 
extracts from the reasoning of Cyprian against 
the notion, that heretics might receive grace, 
according to their faith, in their own mockery of 
the Baptismal rite. But such expressions were 
of course open to the imputation of bigotry, from 

'' pp, 134-, 135. ■" p. 133. 

A a 



354 LIFE AND TIMES 

those who could not understand^ that the most 
energetic maintenance of the truth, the utmost 
hatred of error, is not inconsistent with true 
love, and personal forbearance. Against the 
pseudo-charity, therefore, or liberalism of some, 
he presents the following admirable exposition of 
a passage from the Epistle to the Philippians, 
which had been claimed then, as it is continually 
now, as favouring such principles. 

^^ As for the fancy of some, that the words of 
St. Paul, Notwithsianding every way, whether in 
pretence or truth, let Christ be preached, afford 
any sanction to the proceedings of heretics, we 
are convinced that they give no support either 
to heretics or to their abettors. For in truth 
St. Paul was not speaking of heretics, or of 
any thing concerning them. The two classes of 
persons whose preaching he mentions, were both 
of the brethren ; though some were disorderly 
in their conduct, and regardless of the laws of 
the Church, while the rest preserved the truth of 
the Gospel with a due reverence and fear. Now 
while some of these constantly and boldly 
preached the word of the Lord, and some of 
envy and ill will ; while some maintained a 
sincere love for his person, but others were 
filled with hatred and malevolence ; he patiently 
endured all, since, whether in pretence or in 
truth, the name of Christ, which he also preached, 
came to the knowledge of many; and the preach- 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 355 

ing of all, though perhaps some were novices and 
imperfectly taught, yet prevailed to the spread 
of truth. Now surely it is one thing for those 
who are within the Church to speak of Christ ; 
and another for those who are without the 
Church, and its enemies, to baptize in the name 
of Christ. Let not those then who would vindi- 
cate the proceedings of heretics, adduce the ex- 
pressions of St. Paul concerning hr^ethren : but let 
them point out some place in w^hich he grants that 
any thing is to be conceded to heretics, in which 
he approves their faith and baptism, in which he 
has taught that they who are in schism, and are 
blasphemers, can obtain remission of their sins, 
without the pale of the Church ^" He then 
proceeds to note what St. Paul does say of 
heretics, and of the zeal with which we should 
oppose their errors, and the fear with w^hich we 
should renounce their fellowship. 

The argument of expediency was also pressed 
against St. Cyprian's rule ; it was objected, that 
the necessity of being baptized would repel here- 
tics from the Church, and that it would bring on 
the Church unnecessary odium. These ob- 
jections St. Cyprian answers with characteristic 
courage and decision, plainly declaring, that in 
such cases the boldest way, that of the highest 
principle is the best. As for the heretics, if their 
baptism be admitted, it will tend to make them 

' p. 1S3. 

A a 2 



356 LIFE AND TIMES 

think, from the very testimony of the Church, 
that they in their separation are not cut off from 
the privilege of true Christians ; but if they find 
that their baptism is disallowed, they will, per- 
haps at least, be startled by a more serious view 
of their position, and make the greater haste to 
regain the privileges which they have lost. As 
for the dreaded odium of rebaptizing : if we dare 
not incur this, shall we not involve ourselves in 
a greater difficulty? for if we grant a true 
baptism to heretics, we grant that not right and 
presumptive, but mere and usurped possession, 
is the only title to this privilege : and thus one 
of the noblest parts of the appanage of the 
Church is not only seized by others, but yielded 
by ourselves : but how perilous it may be to 
surrender our rights in spiritual matters, we are 
divinely taught by the example of Esau ; who 
found no place for repentance, having sold his 
birthright. 

Let us take the conclusion of this Epistle, 
for the conclusion also of the present chapter ; 
to which it is very appropriate, forming as it 
does a sort of transition from the amicable dis- 
cussion to the violent agitation of this great 
question. Reverting to the calm, already ruffled, 
with regret; yet looking forward to the storm 
with the confidence of moral rectitude and cou- 
rage; Cyprian appears before the world protesting 
his love of harmony, and his desire to maintain 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 



.'^57 



unity as well as truth ; and desiring for his own 
part not to be moved from the advantages of a 
patient continuance in well-doing, whatever may 
occur. 

" I have written, dearest brother, as briefly as 
I could, dictating to none, nor daring to condemn 
those beforehand, who may use their liberty of 
judging and of acting, to the best of their judg- 
ment. If it be possible to avoid it, I will not 
quarrel on account of heretics with any who are 
united with me in the bonds of truth and by the 
peace of the Lord: especially since the Apostle 
says, if any one wanteth to be contentious, we have 
no such custom, neither the Church of God, I 
hold fast, in patience and meekness, the love of 
the Christians, the honour of our college, the 
bond of faith, the unity of the Episcopate : and 
to this end I have exercised myself in the compo- 
sition of a book on the advantages of patience, 
which I have now finished to the best of my 
weak ability, and with the grace and help of the 
Lord. Of this book I send you a copy, as a 
token of our mutual affection ^." 

8 page 137. 



CHAPTER XV. 



STEPHEN, BISHOP OF ROME, INTERFERES IN THE CONTRO- 
VERSY ABOUT THE BAPTISM OF HERETICS. CYPRIAN's 

EPISTLE TO POMPEIUS. — THE LAST COUNCIL ASSEMBLED AT 

CARTHAGE TO DETERMINE THE QUESTION; ST. CYPRIAN's 

OPENING ADDRESS ; AND SEVERAL OF THE MORE RE- 
MARKABLE SUFFRAGES. THE UNANIMITY OF THE. COUN- 
CIL AGAINST THE JUDGMENT OF STEPHEN, AND THE 

CUSTOM OF ROME. IRENiEUS AND VICTOR. DIONYSIUS 

AND STEPHEN. 



Henceforward Stephen occupies a place in 
the foreground of the picture, and the whole 
scene is troubled. 

About this time, that arrogant and violent 
Prelate addressed an Epistle to Cyprian, in 
which he expressed the opinion of his own 
Church, with something less of humility and 
temper than became the character of a Bishop. 
This Epistle is lost ; but Cyprian has himself 
preserved several parts of it, and these we may 
suppose the most important parts, since they are 
selected by Cyprian as most requiring an answer. 



LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CYPRIAN. .359 

These detached fragments of Stephen's letter 
occur in an Epistle of Cyprian to Pompeius, who 
had requested Cyprian to furnish him with a 
copy of it. 

'^ I send you/' says Cyprian^ " a transcript of 
Stephen's letter ; and when you read it, you 
will abundantly discover his error, in labouring 
to establish the cause of heretics against Chris- 
tians, and against the Church of God. For 
among other things which he advances, either 
arrogantly or impertinently, or which he so 
states as to be even inconsistent with himself, 
he has gone so far as to write thus : ' If, then, any 
are come over to you from any heresy whatever, \a 
quacumqiie hceresi,'] let no new rule he followed, 
hut according to traditional usage let him he 
received hy i?nposition of hands and penance; 
for even heretics themselves follow in this instance 
the legitimate custom, and haptize not their pro- 
selytes, but communicate them only ^.' " 

Cyprian's answer to this judgment and rea- 
soning of Stephen, will throw some light on the 
estimation in which the decree of the Roman 
Pontiff, and the tradition and custom of the 
Roman Church, were held in the Church Ca- 
tholic. 

St. Cyprian reasons thus : 

He has forbidden that converts from any 
heresy should be baptized ; that is, he has de- 
" Ep. Ixxiv. p, ij§8. 



360 LIFE AND TIMES 

termined that the baptism of all heretics is 
lawful and valid. And forasmuch as each heresy 
has its own baptism, and its distinctive crimes, 
he has accumulated upon himself the baptism 
and the crimes of all. 

As for the tradition of which he speaks, 
whence is it ? Does it descend from divine and 
evangelical authority ? Have we it from the 
commands and Epistles of the Apostles ? Divine 
traditions, divine commands, are to be obeyed. 
If, then, either in the Gospels, or in the Acts, or 
in the Apostolical Epistles, we are forbidden to 
baptize converts from heresy, and required to 
receive them at once to penance with imposition 
of hands ; — be it so. But if heretics have no 
other name and character in the sacred Scriptures 
but that of enemies and antichrists, — if we are 
taught to avoid them, — if they are said to be 
perverse, and self-condemned ; why are we not 
to condemn those, who, as the Apostle tells us, 
have condemned themselves ? And now there are 
even worse heresies in the Church, than in the 
Apostles' days ; as that of Marcion, for instance. 
As for those who set up the traditions of men 
against the divine word, the Apostle teaches 
us to withdraw ourselves from all such, for they 
are proud, knowing nothing '\ Again : 

" Neither ought the custom which has crept 
in unawares among some, to stand in the way of 
*» I Tim. iv. 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 861 

the universal prevalence of truth ; for custom 

without truth, is but the rust of error 

Nor is the cause obscure which is to be followed 
by those who desire^ religiously and in simplicity, 
to set aside error, and to discover the truth, and 
bring it to light. For when we return to the 
fountain and origin of divine tradition, human 
error ceases ; and when we have looked into the 
intention of the heavenly mysteries, whatever 
before lay hid beneath the obscurity and cloud 
of darkness, is brought into the full light of truth. 
If a water-course, which used to flow copiously, 
suddenly dries up, do we not go to the well-head 
to discover the cause of the interruption; whether 
the spring itself has failed, or whether the stream 
which flows freely from thence has been diverted 
in some part of its course : so that if the defect 
arise from a broken channel, the proper repairs 
may restore the stream to its accustomed uses, 
in the same plenty in which it issues from the 
spring ? And such is the course which the 
Priests of God should pursue, in the maintaining 
of the divine precepts. If the truth has been 
lost or obscured in any matter, we should trace it 
back to its divine origin, and to the tradition of 
the Apostles, and we then should gather our rules 
and frame our conduct according to the divine 
original. Now we find it recorded, that there is 
one God, and one Christ, and one hope, and one 
faith, and one Churchy and one Baptism ap- 



362 LIFE AND TIMES 

pointed in that one Church only ; and whosoever 
departs from the unity of these things, necessarily 
has his part with heretics %" &c The ap- 
plication of this rule to the particular question of 
Baptism we have already seen ; but it is in- 
teresting to find Cyprian arguing against the 
positions of the Roman Church and Pontiff of 
that day, on precisely the same Catholic ground 
that our Church now occupies, and is learning to 
vindicate to herself once again, after the noble 
example of her early reformers. 

Cyprian proceeds to declare against the rea- 
soning of Stephen : 

That to adduce the custom of heretics is indeed 
a notable device. 

That if the name of Christ was sufficient in 
Baptism, then it would be sufficient in imposi- 
tion of hands also ; and the heretics who confer 
the one, according to Stephen, might also confer 
the other. 

That a Bishop ought not only to teach, but 
also to learn ; for he becomes more fit to teach, 
as he adds daily to his stock of true know- 
ledge. 

Such is the tone (though not the exact words 
and order) of some of the remarks of Cyprian 
upon Stephen's authority and reasoning. Among 
others the following striking passage occurs : 

t Ep. Ixxiv. pp. 141, 142 



OF ST. CVTRIAN. 3G3 

^* Doth he give glory to God, who communicates 
with the Baptism of Marcion ? Doth he give 
glory to God, who thinks that remission of sins 
can be given among those who blaspheme God ? 
Doth he give glory to God, who asserts that 
children of God may be born without the Church 
of an adulteress and fornicator ? Doth he give 
honour to God, who vindicates the cause of 
heresy against the Church ; forsaking the unity 
and truth Vvhich came from the law of God ? 
Doth he give glory to God, w^ho, the friend of 
heretics, the enemy of Christ, judges those 
priests of God worthy of excommunication w^ho 
defend the truth of Christ and the unity of the 
Church ? If this be to honour God, if the fear 
and discipline of God be thus guarded by His 
priest, let us throw down our arms, let us submit 
our hands to captivity, let us surrender the 
administration of the Gospel, the ordinances of 
Christ, the majesty of God, to the Devil : let 
the oath of our divine warfare be dissolved, let 
the standard of the armies of heaven be betrayed: 
let the Church yield to heretics, light to darkness, 
faith to perfidy, hope to despair, reason to error, 
immortality to death, love to hatred, truth to a lie, 
Christ to Antichrist. No wonder that schisms 
and heresies thus arise day after day, and grow 
with a strange rapidity and strength, and erect 
their scaly heads against the Church of God, 
injecting the poison of their error more and more 



364 LIFE AND TIMES 

fatally, while both authority and stability is given 
to them by the advocacy of some; while their 
baptism is defended ; while faith and truth are 
betrayed ; while that which is done against the 
Church without her pale, is vindicated in the 
Church itself. But if, dearest brother, we have 
any love of God, any faith and regard for the 
truth ; if we keep the law of Christ, if we guard 
inviolate the purity of His spouse, if the words of 
the Lord are written in our hearts. When the Son 
of man cometh shall He find faith on the earth 9 
As faithful soldiers of God, let us fight for a true 
faith and a pure religion; with the courage of 
tried fidelity, let us guard the camp divinely 
committed to our keeping." 

The Epistle of Stephen to Cyprian was an- 
swered, as we collect with probability at least, by 
the African Church ; which seems with Cyprian 
to have maintained a far better temper than 
Stephen, and to have sought his concurrence, 
so long as it could be hoped for, and his con- 
tinued communion, until it was denied by him- 
self*^. This was expressly declared in the first 



rf Need I remind the reader, that the Church of England 
at the Reformation pursued precisely the same Catholic course 
with Rome, and met with precisely the same uncharitable 
and schismatical return? We are accused of having left 
the Church of Rome : the truth is, that the Church of Rome 
thrust us out against our will, and with the utmost contumely 
and cruelty. 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. SG^:) 

Epistle to him before cited ; and Cyprian con- 
tinues to call Stephen " brother/' which he would 
not do, unless he still retained him, and wished 
to retain him, in the unity of the Church. 

The last effort^ which the Africans made to 
retain peace with Rome, seems to have been after 
Stephen had so scandalously abused Cyprian, as 
to call him a false Christ, a false Apostle, a 
deceitful worker : and after he had fulminated 
his excommunications against the whole Church 
of Carthage. Even after this the Africans sent 
messengers to Rome to bring things to a better 
state if possible ; but their message was rejected, 
and their legates treated wdth disrespect and 
contumely. 

Things being now in such a deplorable con- 
dition, Cyprian, seeking countenance in the 
consent of good and great men in the Church, 
communicated the whole affair to Firmilian, one 
of those Asiatic Bishops who were already in the 
same condemnation with himself, and for the 
same cause. Firmilian had been a pupil of 
Origen ; he was Bishoj) of Cesar^a, in Cappa- 
docia, and was a Prelate of great note in his 
day : and his long reply to Cyprian's commu- 
nication amply sustains his character with pos- 
terity. It is certainly a masterly production, 
or ratlier the production of a master mind ; for 

e See Mosheim, p. 544. 



360 LIFE AND TIMES 

it was written in so great haste, that he himself 
apologizes for its defects on that score. But it is 
chiefly valuable to us, not as attesting the genius 
of its author, but as supplying indications which 
were else wanting of some minor incidents of this 
controversy ; and as affording irrefragable proofs 
that Rome and its Bishop had not then those 
exclusive claims to respect and obedience, which 
she arrogates now over all Bishops and all 
Churches. In this latter point of view I have 
considered the Epistle of Firmilian in another 
work^; and I have made continual use of his 
historical hints, in the present view of this con- 
troversy. 

But the most important step which Cyprian 
took, was the calling a Council of eighty-five 
Bishops, the last, and the most celebrated of all 
those that met under his Episcopate, for the 
discussion of this question. We have no re- 
cords remaining of the other Councils, but the 
mention of them in the several Epistles before 
cited : but of this Council the synodal acts still 
remain. 

When the far greater part of the Bishops of 
Africa, Numidia, and Mauritania had assembled^, 
with the Priests and Deacons, (much people 
being also present,) and when the letter of 



^ Testimony of St. Cyprian against Rome, p. 17O — 178. 
« On the first of September, 256. 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 367 

Jubaianus to Cyprian concerning the baptizing 
of heretics, with the answer of Cyprian, and also 
a reply of Jubaianus, expressing his concurrence, 
had been read, Cyprian rose, and thus addressed 
the Synod. 

'' You have heard, most beloved colleagues, 
what my fellow Bishop Jubaianus wrote to me, 
desiring my poor judgment upon the unlawful 
and profane baptism of heretics : you have 
heard, too, my reply ; that I thought, as I have 
always thought and still think, that heretics, on 
their return to the Church, ought to be baptized 
and sanctified with the Church's baptism. You 
have also heard the second Epistle of Jubaianus, 
in which he not only expresses his assent to my 
judgment, but declares himself thankful also for 
the information which I had been able to afford 
him. It remains that we declare, each of us, 
what we think upon this subject, neither judging 
any one, nor forbidding any, if he judge other- 
wise, to communicate his opinion. For neither 
has any one of us constituted himself a Bishop 
of Bishops, nor reduced his colleagues to the 
necessity of conforming to his judgment, by a 
tyrannical display of terrors ; since every Bishop 
has a right to judge for himself, and is at liberty 
to use his own authority, and can no more be 
judged by another, than he can judge another. 
But let us all expect the judgment of our 
Lord Jesus Christ, who alone hath the power. 



368 LIFE AND TIMES 

both to constitute us governors in his Church, 
and to pronounce judgment upon our con- 
duct '." 

The modesty and forbearance of the opening 
of the Council by the insulted Cyprian, has the 
especial praise of Augustine ; who differed from 
him in his judgment, but could not help admiring 
the manner in which it was enforced. And in- 
deed it is remarkable, that not only in Cyprian, 
but in the whole Synod assembled with him, so 
far as we collect from the several suffrages, the 
merits of the question were discussed without 
any undue reference to those feelings which must 
have been excited by the unwarrantable and rash 
severity of Stephen. 

Some few of the more remarkable of those 
suffrages I shall transcribe. 

Cagcilius of Bilta, whose suffrage is first in 
order, seems to have resembled Cyprian as much 
in his diffuse and oratorical style, as in his judg- 
ment. " I acknowledge," says he, " but one 
baptism within the Church, and without the 
Church none. That one baptism is only where 
there is a true hope, and an assured faith. For 
so it is written: One faith, one liope, one baptism; 
not among heretics, where hope there is none, 
and where faith is falsehood ; where all things 
are carried on with lying; where a demoniac 

^ page ^29. 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 369 

exercises, a profane man puts the baptismal 
interrogatories, his words eating as a cancer ; 
when an infidel imposes the faith, the wicked 
man remits sins. Antichrist sprinkles in the name 
of Christ, he who is cursed of God blesses, the 
dead promises life, the broiler gives peace, the 
blasphemer invokes God, the profane man ad- 
ministers the sacred functions, and the sacrile- 
gious consecrates the altar. To all these evils yet 
another is added, that the chief ministers of 
Satan dare to offer the Eucharist. Or if these 
things be not so, let those who join the heretics 
in their mockeries deny them if they can. Be- 
hold, to what iniquities the Church is now com- 
pelled to consent, while she is forced to receive 
such men to communion, without baptism, and 
without pardon. Surely, my brethren, we ought 
to flee from such wickedness, and to separate 
ourselves from such iniquity ; and to hold that 
one baptism, which is committed to the Church 
alone." 

Polycarp of Adrumettium spoke third: '' They 
who approve the baptism of heretics, invalidate 
our own." 

Nicomedes of Segurnae said, '' I hold that 
heretics should be received into the Church by 
baptism, because they can receive no remission 
of sins without the Church, and from sinners." 

The suffrage of Mummulus of Galba. '' The 
verity of our mother, the Church Catholic, hath 

Bb 



370 LIFE AND TIMES 

always remained, and yet remains among us, 
my brethren ; and even more especially in the 
recognition of the Trinity in Baptism, since our 
Lord said. Go ye, and baptize the nations in the 
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the 
Holy Spirit, Since then we are certain that the 
heretics have neither the Father, nor the Son, 
nor the Holy Spirit, they who come to the 
Church our mother, ought to be truly regene- 
rated and baptized : that they may, by the holy 
and heavenly laver, be delivered from the canker 
which is destroying them, and from the wrath of 
damnation, and from the sulliage of error." 

Fortunatus of Tuchaboris said, '^ Jesus Christ 
our Lord and God, and the Son of God the 
Father and Creator, founded His Church on 
a rock, not upon heresy ; and gave the privilege 
of Baptism to Bishops, not to heretics. Where- 
fore they who are without the Church, and 
opposing themselves to Christ scatter the 
sheep of His flock, cannot baptize without the 
Church." 

Secundinus of Carpi spoke thus. " Are here- 
tics Christians, or are they not ? If they be 
Christians, why are they not in the Church of 
Christ ? If they be not Christians, how can they 
make men Christians ? Or whither tends that 
word of the Lord, He that is not with me is 
against me, and he who gather eth not with me 
scattereth? Whence it follows, that the Holy 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 371 

Spirit cannot descend^ by imposition of hands, 
upon strange children, and the progeny of 
Antichrist : since it is clear that heretics have 
no baptism." 

Adelphius of Thasbalte. '' The report that 
we rebaptize, is false, and as malicious as it is 
untrue : for the Church does not rebaptize here- 
tics, but baptize them." 

Pelagianus of Luperciana. '^ It is written. 
Either the Lord is your God, or Baal is your 
God; and now, in like manner, either the 
Church is the Church, or heresy is the Church. 
But if heresy be not the Church, how can 
heretics have at their disposal the Baptism of 
the Church ?" 

Marcellus of Zama. '' Since there is no re- 
mission of sins, except in the Baptism of the 
Church, he who baptizes not a heretic holds 
communion with a sinner." 

Zosimus of Tharassa said, '' When truth has 
been revealed, let error yield to truth : for even 
Peter, who before enjoined circumcision, yielded 
to the truth which Paul preached," 

The suffrage of Therapius of Bulla. " Whoso 
betrays the Baptism of the Church to heretics, 
what is he but a Judas to the spouse of 
Christ ?" 

Verulus of Rusiccas. '' A man that is an 
heretic cannot impart that which himself hath 

Bb 2 



372 LIFE AND TIMES 

not ; much less a schismatic, who hath lost that 
which he had." 

Clarus of Massula said, ^^ The intention of 
our Lord Jesus Christ is clear, from His sending 
His Apostles, and committing to them alone the 
authority which was given to Him by the Father; 
to which Apostles we succeed, governing the 
Church of the Lord with the same authority, 
and baptizing those who rightly believe. On 
the other hand, heretics, who have neither au- 
thority being without, nor the Church of Christ, 
can baptize none with the Baptism of Christ." 

Natalis of Oea delivered the proxies of Pom- 
peius and Dioga with his own suffrage, saying, 
'^ As well I myself, as Pompeius of Sabra, and 
Dioga of Leftis-Magna, who have delegated their 
authority to me, and though absent in body are 
present in spirit, agree in the judgment of our 
colleagues. That heretics cannot communicate 
with us, until they have received the Church's 
Baptism." 

And last of all spoke Cyprian of Carthage. 
" My Epistle to Jubaianus declares my opinion 
at large : That heretics, who are declared by the 
terms of the Gospel, and by the declaration of 
the Apostle, to be both adversaries of Christ, 
and Antichrists, when they come into the 
Church, ought to be baptized with the one 
Baptism of the Church ; that of adversaries they 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 373 

may be made friends, and of Antichrists Chris- 
tians." 

Thus the eighty-five Bishops assembled at this 
Council, with two others who voted therein by 
proxy, unanimously agreed, that heretics ought 
to be baptized on their conversion to the Church : 
and thus by their Synodical act, they deliberately 
chose the condemnation of Stephen and his 
Church, (with whatever penalty of right at- 
tended it,) before a submission to that authority, 
when their consciences were opposed to its 
dictates. 

They were already, indeed, excommunicated 
by Stephen ; unless we rather hold with Fir- 
milian, that Stephen, by his excommunication 
of the African Churches, had cut himself off 
from the Church of Christ. But in thus volun- 
tarily binding the burden of his anathema upon 
themselves, rather than bending beneath the 
weight of a new custom imposed by his Church, 
surely the African Bishops in the Council spoke 
volumes, as to their judgment of Rome as an 
infallible Church, and of her Bishop as the centre 
of unity. 

With this Council ended the controversy upon 
the baptism of heretics, so far as Africa was con- 
cerned ; and henceforth we hear of no farther 
discussions upon the subject ; though there is no 
shadow of evidence that either Cyprian, and the 
Churches who adhered to his opinion, or Stephen 



374 LIFE AND TMES 

and his party^ ever came into a different judgment 
from that which we have seen them maintaining 
respectively. Mosheim suggests^ that the unani- 
mity of the Africans upon this subject, and the 
consent of the Asiatics in their judgment, 
wrought so far at least with Stephen, as to 
moderate the expression of his anger. The 
Africans themselves, always disposed to peace, 
and to holding their own opinions, and main- 
taining their own customs, while they conceded 
the same license to others, were not likely to 
move the question with needless or untimely 
violence. That they were cut off from all 
external fellowship with Rome they must have 
regretted ; but not imagining that this was tan- 
tamount to being cast into a lower hell than is 
opened for any other but delinquents against the 
Church of Rome, they needed not to sink the 
dignity of an independent Church by an idle 
clamour. Nor yet were they forced by the law 
of charity, to proselytize their opponents, as 
if they could so only deliver them from eternal 
wrath ; for neither was Carthage any more than 
Rome to be accounted infallible, nor Cyprian 
any more than Stephen, to be made the centre 
of necessary unity to all Christendom. Even- 
tually the evil cured itself, and that peace suc- 
ceeded, which could never have returned, had the 
violence of Stephen long irritated the Church, or 
had it been borne with less patience than that 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 375 

I which arose from conscious rectitude, and an 

absence of all fear. In St. Augustine's time, we 
find the Africans agreeing against the Donatists 
in the judgment of the Catholic Church, (which 
was not however the judgment of Stephen, 
though verbally more near to it than to that 
of Cyprian,) to which they probably conformed 
insensibly. 

Besides, as Victor, a former Bishop of Rome, 
had found in Saint Irenaeus one to advise more 
moderate measures than he was disposed to 
adopt, in the controversy concerning the keeping 
of Easter ; so did Pope Stephen find in Diony- 
sius of Alexandria, one not less disposed nor less 
able than Irenasus to take the same fraternal 
part. For Eusebius' preserves a portion of a 
letter from Dionysius to Sixtus of Rome, Stephen's 
successor, concerning Baptism. Stephen, says 
the historian, had signified to Helenus and Fir- 
milian, with the other Bishops of Cilicia, Cap- 
padocia, and the neighbouring provinces, that he 
had thenceforth withdrawn his communion from 
them, because they baptized heretics. '' But," 
says Dionysius to Sixtus, " consider I beseech 
you the importance of this affair. For it has 
been determined even in great Councils, that 
those heretics who return to the Catholic Church 
shall be received into the rank of Catechumens, 
and that they shall afterwards be cleansed from 
' Lib. VII. cap. v. 



S76 LIFE AND TIMES 

the impurities which they have contracted with 
the waters of Baptism. I myself/' continues 
Dionysius, '' wrote to Stephen, entreating for 
them his indulgence." 

Of the precise opinion of Dionysius himself in 
this important question we are not able to speak 
positively. The last citation, from one of his 
Epistles seems to favour the views of Cyprian ; 
perhaps what he says to Sixtus on a subsequent 
occasion, looks the other way. " I have need/' 
says he, " of your counsel, to guard me from 
error in a question on which I have been 
consulted. One of the brethren, who had always 
been reputed among the faithful, and who had 
always communicated not only before my Epis- 
copate,but even before that of the blessed Heraclas, 
was present one day at the celebration of Bap- 
tism, and heard the interrogations put to the 
candidates, and their answers. This man came 
to me, and throwing himself at my feet, bewailed 
his unhappy lot ; saying, that the Baptism which 
he had received at the hand of heretics, was not 
like ours, nor had any thing in common with it : 
that the Baptism of which he had partaken was 
full of impiety and blasphemy ; and that he was 
grievously afflicted on that account, not daring to 
raise his eyes to heaven for very shame and 
remorse. In a word, he besought me to give him 
the true Baptism, and to confer on him the grace 
of adoption. I have hitherto ventured to do 



OF ST. CYl^RlAN. 377 

nothing in this matter, and have told him, that 
the long time that he has been in communion with 
the true Church ought to satisfy him ; that he 
had often been present at the prayers of the 
faithful, and answered Amen ; that he had 
stretched forth his hand to receive the conse- 
crated bread ; that he had again and again par- 
taken of the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus 
Christ. I exhorted him on these grounds to be 
of good courage, and to continue still to com- 
municate in faith and hope : yet he will not be 
comforted ; he dare not approach the holy table, 
and we can hardly persuade him to join in the 
prayers of the Church '\" 

Now though this relation seems rather to 
favour the view of Stephen than that of Cy- 
prian, yet it is only at first sight ; for Dionysius 
does not ground the propriety of the old man's 
communicating on the validity of his Baptism, 
but on the length of time that he had been re- 
ceived to a participation with the Church even in 
her higher mysteries. I do not mean that Cy- 
prian would have agreed with Dionysius, (though 
I cannot deny it,) but I say, and that wdthout 
hesitation, that Stephen would not have reasoned 
as he did. But whatever might have been the 
opinion of Dionysius on the abstract question, 
nothing can be more clear than his condemnation 
of the way in which one side of it was enforced 
** Eusebius VII. ix. 



378 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CYPRIAN. 

by Rome. '' Of this at least/' says he, I am sure, 
^' that the Africans have not now introduced this 
custom, but that it has the sanction of the practice 
of ancient Bishops, and the authority of many 
Councils held as well at Iconium and Synnada 
as at other places. For my own part, I should 
be loth to combat their opinions, to oppose their 
decisions, or to contest the point with them in 
any way ; for it is written. Thou shall not remove 
thy neighbour's landmark^'' 

' Letter of Dionysius to Philemon, a priest of the Church 
of Rome, «pMc? £?<.se6. VII. vii. 



CHAP. XVI. 



A GENERAL VIEW OF THE PRINCIPLES INVOLVED IN THE 
CONTROVERSY CONCERNING THE BAPTISM OF HERETICS. 



The custom of the Churchy established on the 
authority of General Councils, has subsequently 
determined the question of the baptism of here- 
tics; so that the Council of Carthage has now no 
authority, nor is there any place in the Church 
for the controversy out of which it arose : but it 
must always be a matter of interest to enter into 
the merits of a question, which divided the Church 
so remarkably, and which was so vigorously dis- 
puted in distant parts of the world ; and besides, 
there are principles recognized throughout the 
discussion, at least on St. Cyprian's part, and in 
every suffrage in the Council, which can never be 
antiquated . I propose, therefore, shortly to review 
the opinions of the parties here opposed, and to 
elicit some of the general principles which are 
involved in the grounds on which the question 
was discussed. 

This was no contest about terms: the opinions 
of the contending parties were quite incompatible ; 



380 LIFE AND TIMES 

nor did any friendly mediator, of sufficient weight 
to be heard, propose the middle course afterwards 
approved by the Church ; a course which doubt- 
less either of them would have pursued, had it 
been previously pointed out by such paramount 
authority ; but which nevertheless would have 
found an advocate, neither in Stephen nor in 
Cyprian, had it been proposed for the first time 
during the heat of the debate. 

Those who adhered to Cyprian, without all 
doubt denied utterly, not the lawfulness only, but 
the validity, actual or possible, present or latent, 
of the sprinklings and lustrations of heretics and 
schismatics. We have this position so avowedly 
occupied, so carefully and zealously defended, 
that we cannot doubt that it was maintained 
in all its prominence and with all its conse- 
quences. Of Stephen's expressions and reason- 
ings we have no original documents ; and we 
receive what little we possess through his ene- 
mies : hence the exact opinion of Stephen on 
this point admits a doubt, though I think hardly; 
for in the Epistle from Cyprian to Pompeius 
before cited, it seems probable that we have his 
very words ; and if so, it is certain that their 
plain meaning must prevail against any deduc- 
tions from the Epistle of Firmilian, which the 
learned Bingham^ quotes as evidence, that Stephen 

» In his scholastical History of Lay Baptism appended to 
vol. iii. of his Works, Ed. 1836, chap. i. p. 5Q. Milner also 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 381 

held the very doctrhie which was afterwards 
sanctioned by the Council of Aries : viz. that the 
baptism of those heretics only who baptized in 
the name and in the faith of the Trinity, should 
be so far recognized as not to be repeated. 

Firmilian, it is true, brings in the opponents of 
Cyprian, saying, '^ No enquiry need be made who 
was the baptizer, since he who is baptized may 
receive grace on the invocation of the Trinity of 
Names, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost." But if 
I mistake not, it is more probable that Firmilian 
here groups together all the objectors and all the 
objections, (in which case some things which are 
not his will seem to be attributed to Stephen 
personally, if he be taken as the representative 
of the whole body,) than that Cyprian misrepre- 
sents Stephen in a letter which was accompanied 
wdth a copy of the very Epistle from w^iich he 
takes his quotations. Cyprian himself has to 
answer those who were for allowing a baptism 
in the name of Christ only, as well as those 
who were for admitting every Baptism in the 
name of the Trinity : so that if such indications 

makes the judgment of Stephen the same with that of the 
Catholic Church afterwards. " Stephen, Bishop of Rome, 
maintained," says he, " that, if persons had been baptized in 
the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, im- 
position of hands would then be sufficient for their reception 
into the Church : the point was left undecided, because no 
party had power to compel others ; most Christians, however, 
have long since agreed with Stephen." Cent. III. chap. xiii. 



3^2 LIFE AND TIMES 

were sufficient to determine the judgment of 
Stephen personally, it must be determined dif- 
ferent ways. Moreover, it must be observed^ 
that Cyprian not only quotes Stephen as allow- 
ing the broadest recognition of the baptism of 
all heretics ; but that in refuting Stephen, he 
refutes the positions of one who held that ex- 
treme opinion. Cyprian, then, who surely knew 
pretty well how the matter stood, took Stephen 
for the advocate of every heretical baptism : and 
on the whole, I think, we must conclude, that 
Stephen took in this case the extreme opposite 
from the opinion of Cyprian, and that neither the 
one nor the other held precisely, as the Church 
afterwards determined, either at Aries, or at 
Constantinople ^ 

^ I must not;, however, withhold the unqualified praise 
with which Vincentius Lirinensis views the proceedings of 
Stephen, which would look as if the opinion of Stephen 
was that of the Catholic Church. But the question recurs 
in this form, are not we as well able to judge of the history 
of these events as Vincentius himself was ? And though i?i 
the absence of records Vincentius would be received as the 
best authority, yet having Ihe same records to consult as he 
had, are we not equally able to form a history from them ? 
In fact, Vincentius is not quite correct in his historical notice 
of this question ; for Agrippinus was not, as he states, the 
originator of the African custom, unless both Cyprian and 
Firmilian are wilfully wrong in the matter of fact. And 
once more, the definite praise which Vincentius awards to 
Stephen, is not for the precision with which he defined the 
truth upon this question ; but the way in which he stated 
the important rule, that no novelty was to be admitted, but 
that tradition was to be observed. I ought to add, that the 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 383 

Nor did either party, nor does the decision of 
the Catholic Church, hold with the modern 
doctrine of Rome, which falls as much below the 
lowest depth of Stephen's opinion, as Stephen 
fell below the uncompromising doctrine of Cy- 
prian : and which is quite as much at variance 
with the subsequent judgment of the Church, as 
that judgment is at variance with either Stephen 
or Cyprian. The Church's judgment in few 
words was this : That all who had been bap- 
tized by schismatics, and by heretics who used 
the words of the divine institution and in the true 
sense, should be received into the Church by 
chrism and imposition of hands, after due 
penance, and a renunciation of their errors : 
but that the baptism of those heretics who used 
not the words of the institution, or who so used 
them as to deny the Trinity, should be repeated. 
Rome at present teaches, that the baptism even 
of Jews, infidels, and heretics, in cases of necessity, 
is valid : though I suppose she does not involve 
in her anathema against those who deny the 
validity of the baptism of heretics, those who 
repudiate the baptism of Jews and infidels ; 
since these last cannot intend to do what the 
Church does, seeing they know it not, though the 

work of Vincentius does not owe its value to the precise 
historical' correctness of the examples which he adduces. 
The reader will do well to refer to sect. vi. of the Commoni- 
torium of Vincentius. 



384 LIFE AND TIMES 

heretic may be supposed to know it, as he who 
shuns the good, must in some sense know it to 
avoid it. But according to the Romish doctrine 
of intention, is there no difficulty in this question 
from the necessary absence of intention from 
such baptism ? When one insinuates such things 
against a Church which professes to follow ca- 
tholicity and antiquity, it is quite necessary to 
avoid the suspicion of a little polemical romanc- 
ing : I have therefore transcribed the declarations 
to which I refer below \ 

Now that Stephen, much more that the Church 
in her final decree, symbolized with modern Rome 
in this matter, none but a Rom.anist will hold, 
and the Romanist will never prove. But setting 
aside the allusion to this latter controversy, 
Stephen holding that the baptism of all heretics 
and schismatics should be allowed ; Cyprian 

* " Extremus ordo illorum est qui, cogente necessitate, 
sine solemnibus cseremoniis baptizari possunt; quo in 
numero sunt oranes, etiara de populo, sive mares sive 
feminae, quaracumque illi sectam profiteantur : nam et ju- 
daeis quoque et infidelibus et haereticis, cum necessitas cogit 
hoc munus permissum est; si tamen id efficere propositum 
eis fuerit, quod Ecclesia Catholica in eo administrationis 
genere efficit." Cat. Cone. Trid. De Bap. xxii. '' Si quis 
dixerit, Baptismum, qui etiam datus ab haereticis in nomine 
Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti, cum intentione faciendi 
quod facit ecclesia, non esse verum Baptismum, anathema 
sit." Cone. Trid. Sess. vii. can. iv. de bapf. " Si quis dixerit, 
in ministris, dum sacramenta conficiunt, et conferunt, non 
requiri intentionem saltern faciendi quod facit ecclesia, 
anathema sit." Cojic. Trid. Sess. vii. can. xi. de sac. in gen. 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 385 

pointedly denying this position in terms equally 
general ; Which was most nearly right ? and 
which was most excusable in his error, if the 
nearest to the truth was in error at all ? By the 
Church the question was certainly determined 
in a way which seemed most to favour the opinion 
of Stephen : Was it so in effect, and in the prin- 
ciples which it involved ? Let us take another 
view of the final decision of the Church, that we 
may not forget the exact character of that which 
is to be the standard by which the other two are 
to be measured. 

That a distinction was to be made between 
heretics and schismatics : and that the baptism 
of the latter was to be admitted as valid, though 
by no means as lawful ; as carrying with it a 
springing efficacy, so to speak, and as not there- 
fore to be repeated, but to be perfected and 
sanctified by imposition of hands of a Catholic 
Bishop : and that the baptism of those heretics 
who were orthodox in respect of the Trinity, and 
used the words of Christ's institution, was to 
be accounted of in like manner : but that, on the 
other hand, the baptism of those heretics who 
denied the Trinity, and, without all manner of 
question, of those who baptized not in the name 
of the Trinity, was to be accounted no baptism 
at all ; and that they who were converted from 
such heresies were to be received by baptism into 
the Church, as if they had been Jews or Pagans ; — 

c c 



386 LIFE AND TIMES 

this is the decree of the Church Catholic : a 
decree less convenient in its application than 
that either of Cyprian or of Stephen ; but one 
of higher authority, and by which therefore the 
decrees of both those Prelates must submit to be 
tested. 

Now Stephen's laohs more like this decree r 
Cyprian's, I am bold to say, is more nearly con- 
sistent with it. We must enter more deeply 
into the theory of the subject to appreciate the 
points of difference, or of accordance, in these 
several judgments. 

We have first to note, that the Church is the 
depository and the steward of the Sacraments ; in 
dispensing which the Bishop, or other ecclesiastic, 
is but her minister : and it rests with her to deter- 
mine, with the authority which Christ hath given 
to her, but with the responsibility also which 
attends so high a charge, who shall baptize, and 
who not ; whose baptism shall be valid, and 
whose legitimate ; whose perfect, whose only per- 
fectible, and whose utterly null. But there are 
limits which the Church could not pass, without 
becoming tainted with the heresy to which she 
should allow too much : which is indeed impossi- 
ble; but we must so express ourselves at present, 
for the sake of elucidating our position. Or we 
may express the same thing in another way : 
there are some baptisms which it is morally 
impossible that the Church should allow ; for if 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 387 

she allowed them, she would be sullied with 
error ; and no such sulliage can ever cleave to 
her. 

Now it admits a doubt, whether, if the Church 
had determined with Stephen, and had received 
the baptism of all heretics ; as of the Marcionites, 
for instance, who blasphemed the Father, or of 
Paul of Samosata and his followers, w^ho blas- 
phemed the Son ; — it admits a doubt, I say, 
whether she would not then have been tainted 
with such profane and sacrilegious errors. The 
Church, in fact, seems to me to have judged, that 
she could not do this without incurring such a 
stain : for while she showed that mercy and 
liberality was the rule of her proceeding, by 
extending her favour, so to speak, to converts 
from other heresies, and deeming their baptisms 
valid, though not legitimate ; she showed equally 
clearly that some imperative claim rested on her 
to place bounds to her indulgence, before it had 
included those extreme profanations. Thus with 
becoming caution did she exert her dispensing 
power, as steward of the mysteries of God ; 
showing favour where it could not be claimed 
from her as of right, but where it was the spon- 
taneous motion of her love, yet not against right. 
But, on the other hand, was it not imperative on 
the Church to deny the like favour to the worst 
heretics ; while it was but an act of her grace to 
allow it to the less profanely heterodox ? Might she 

c c2 



388 LIFE AND TIMES 

not, with perfect justice, have judged as Cyprian 
judged? Could she have judged as Stephen 
judged, without denying all the principles of 
authority, of sanctity, and of obedience, by which 
she was bound to regulate her conduct in this 
matter ? 

If I am right thus far, it follows that Cyprian 
was not wrong in this matter ; for he did that in 
his own Church which it was competent for the 
whole Church to do : and he did it before the 
Church had determined otherwise ; and while it 
was competent therefore for him, as Bishop, to 
do in his own diocese, whatever the Church 
might do in all Christendom. But Stephen was 
wrong ; for he did that (before, indeed, the 
Church had declared against him) which the 
Church could never do, because it was in itself 
wrong, and the Church does not err. 

Or even admitting that Stephen's judgment 
was not incompatible with sound doctrine and 
custom ; yet still, the Church in her highest 
authority being the steward of Baptism ; — and 
until a General Council, the Bishop in each Dio- 
cese, or the Synod of Bishops in each Province, 
being the highest authority in the Church; — it 
was wholly unwarrantable in Stephen to attempt 
to obtrude his custom on any other Church, even 
as Dionysius, before quoted, expressly declares : 
and so the great St. Basil taught, that in this 
matter their own custom was to be conceded to 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 389 

particular Churches ; of course antecedently to 
a decree of the Church universal. The inter- 
ference then of Stephen was unjustifiable and 
uncanonical, even supposing his opinion to have 
been sound. 

And be it observed^ that, to this day, one 
cause of complaint against Rome, is often not 
the error of her doctrine, even where we cannot 
wholly agree with her, so much as the un- 
catholic spirit of domination and overbearing 
dogmatism, by which she would bind her own 
doctrines and customs on other Churches, and on 
the consciences of men. For instance ; though 
we deny, and dare not assent to, the doctrine of 
Transubstantiation, yet we should scarce be jus- 
tified in condemning those who hold it, without 
breach of charity, and in Christian humility ; but 
we have good right to complain, if that which 
cannot be proved by God's word, and was never 
believed or dreamt of in the Church for many 
ages, is made a test of our Catholicity, and a 
term of communion : and if we are either ana- 
thematized or burned for withholding our assent 
to such a dogma so brought in, we may well 
utter a sad or an indignant complaint. 

So far for the merits of this great controversy. 
As for the comparative sUill displayed on either 
side, it would not be just to Stephen to say, that 
he seems to have been beyond compare the 
weakest, whether he was right or wrong in 



390 LIFE AND TIMES 

principle, without observing, that we have but 
obscure hints of the course of argument which he 
pursued, and those hints collected from his 
adversaries. Of the conduct of the argument on 
both sides, we may observe, that both appealed 
to Scripture and to custom '^ Custom, if it had 
been Catholic, could of course have told in favour 
of one only ; but nothing can be clearer to one 
who reviews this history, than that there was no 
Catholic custom ; and none other than Catholic 
custom was conclusive, at any rate beyond the 
bounds of particular Churches. Therefore, nei- 
ther Stephen nor Cyprian did well, if he appealed 
to custom, i. e. the particular custom of his own 
Church, in order to obtrude any rule of discipline 
upon all other Churches. Now which was it, 
Stephen or Cyprian, that did this ? 

^ One or two expressions such as this, Let no man prefer 
custom to truth, appearing in some of the suffrages in the 
Council of Carthage, have been adduced to show, that Cy- 
prian's own party perceived the most ancient custom to be 
against them: but this reasoning is really most unjust: 
expressions such as these are aimed at Stephen's claim of 
custom ; and are not admissions in disparagement of their 
own authorities. The words of Firmilian will convey the 
spirit of such expressions. " Nos vei itati et consuetudinem 
jungimus ; et consuetudini Romanorum, consuetudinem 
sed veritatis;, opponimus; ab initio hoc tenentes quod a 
Christo et ab Apostolis traditum est." We couple truth 
with custom, and oppose custom, the true custom, to the 
custom of the Romans : for we hold that which was handed 
down from the beginning by Christ and his Apostles. 
Page 149. ' 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 301 

But it may be said, ' If both sides, appealing 
to custom, yet erred one or both in their con- 
clusions ; is not this an example of the utter 
uncertainty of this method of judging, and of 
the uselessness in practice of the rule of Vin- 
centius?' "We answer. That no rule is of uni- 
versally easy application, and that none can 
free us from the errors in its application, which 
may result either from the weakness or from 
the depravity of men. The error of Stephen 
(whether of weakness or of dishonesty I will 
not determine) was, that he took a particular 
for a general custom ; and hence his arrogant 
attempt upon the liberties of all Churches. 
He argued rightly, but from w-rong premises. 
Cyprian w^as right, so far as we are able to 
judge, both in his premises and in his con- 
clusion ; since, pretending only a particular 
custom, he left every Church at liberty to 
maintain its own rule. These cases then are 
not exactly in point. When we speak of Tra- 
dition, we mean Catholic Tradition, and our 
adversaries know that w'e mean that alone. 
Wherever there was Catholic tradition to be 
appealed to, it was triumphant in the days of 
Cyprian ; and the question involved not the 
principle of Traditions, but the fact of the catho- 
licity of any particular Tradition, Just as, for 
instance, every contested appeal to Scripture, 



392 LIFE AND TIMES 

involves not the sufficiency of Scripture, but the 
fact on which side Scripture actually decides. 
At all events, the enemies of Tradition ought for 
their own sakes to keep every such objection 
in the back ground, lest they should irritate 
us to retort the question in another form : ^ If 
you agree among yourselves in almost nothing 
but in your abhorrence of custom, are you not a 
standing example of the uncertainty of whatever 
rule you may please to follow V Let me add, 
(that the question may not be misapprehended,) 
that it glances not at Scripture, (which is 
neither uncertain nor insufficient,) but at pri- 
vate judgment and individual interpretation^ 
The very controversy before us exemplifies this 
remark. 

I said, that both Stephen and Cyprian appealed 
to Scripture : and I say^ too, that to Scripture 
every heresy that ever sprang from the ignorance 
or folly or pride or presumption or impiety of 
men, or from the darkest suggestions of the 
Devil, has appealed, and will appeal, we may 
be sure, to the end of time. And not unoften 
heretics have vindicated their claims to particular 
texts with such a show of reason, as to seem more 
nearly entitled to them than the Catholic Church. 
Thus, for instance, Theodoret tells us of the Nova- 
tians, of whom we have had occasion to say so 
inuch, that they set in array against the truth. 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 393 

the fourth, fifth, and sixth verses of the sixth 
chapter of Hebrews ^ ; not understanding that 
the holy Apostle was then teaching the doctrine 
of Baptism, and not interdicting the medicines 
of repentance^ Now none can deny the apparent 
aptitude of this text to serve the cause of the 
Novatians; nor fail to perceive, that theirs is even 
the most natural application of the text, though 
without all question a wrong one. What is the 
conclusion ? This is certainly a conclusion, (and 
let those who object to it provide another, for the 
phenomenon is of too constant recurrence, and of 
too stupendous effect to be passed over without 
use or comment,) this is a conclusion : that no 
rule of applying Holy Scripture can defend the 
Church against every conceivable error, but one 
that goes to the Church itself, as the interpreter 
of Scripture. 

In the particular case before us, Cyprian quoted 
Scripture with better effect than his opponents : 
as we have before shown that his judgment was 
the nearest to the truth ; for though the letter 

e " It is impossible for those who were once enlightened, 
and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made par- 
takers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of 
God, and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall 
away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they 
crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put Him 
to an open shame." 

^ Vide Theodoret in locum, vol. iii. p. 679. J^^l- Halce 1771. 
8vo 



394 LIFE AND TIMES 

of the texts which he cites scarcely bears out the 
whole of his reasoning, yet their spirit is quite 
in his favour ; but Stephen, quoting St. Paul's 
doctrine of One Lord, one faith, one Baptism, 
clearly justified the retort, that by receiving the 
Baptism of heretics, he multiplied Baptisms, so as 
to make as many Baptisms in the Church, as there 
were heresies out of the Church. 

The temper with which this controversy was 
carried on does not seem to me to throw unsullied 
light on either party : nor can I imagine how the 
Romish historian can venture to assert, that it 
was concluded by the consent of the whole 
Church, and without any rupture during its 
continuance ; and moreover, that one of the 
final causes for which our Lord permitted this 
discussion, was, that posterity might learn from 
the example of the contending parties what was 
the temper and the conduct which became men 
under such circumstances^. I believe, however, 

5 These are such bold misrepresentations of polemical 
history, that I must quote the very passage to which I refer, 
lest I should seem to be inventing myself " Tandem dis- 
serendo perveniunt ad celeberrimam illam de baptismo con- 
troversiara, in qua non parva haereticorum aut schismatico- 
rum raanus universae Ecclesise bellum indixit, sed insignes 
eeclesiae, Africa, Cappadocia, Silicia et finitimae provinciae de 
re longe gravissima cum aliis ecclesiis decertarunt. Etsi 
autem in ipso dissentionis incendio luctuosa rerum facies 
extitit ; tamen ex commodis, quae in Ecclesiam ex hac con- 
troversia fluxerunt, facile perspicitur earn Christo providente 
et dispensante natam fuisse, non solum ut res tanti momenti 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 395 

that none either will or can excuse Stephen per- 
sonally, if the question is fairly proposed to them ; 
and though Cyprian's humility and mildness have 
been commended : and though, as I have before 
remarked, he does in some respects deserve very 
high commendation ; and though at any rate as 
compared with Stephen he was admirable in his 
temper, and in the whole management of the 
controversy ; yet if I were Cyprian's panegyrist, 
instead of his historian, I should be disposed to 
pass very lightly over this page of his history. 
Controversy, especially personal controversy, is 
not a favourable field for the growth of the 
Christian virtues. 

If there are any questions agitated in the 
present day upon which the history of this 
controversy can throw any light, they are those, 
I suppose, which are pending between the 
Church Catholic, and all manifest heretics and 
schismatics, as to the validity of all or any of the 
rites administered by their soi-disants pastors. 
But it must be borne in mind, that since a self- 

conflato et conspiranti omnium consensu aliquando firma- 
retur, sed etiam ut haberent poster! quid in ejusmodi 
dissentioribus imitarentur. Nam baptismi haereticorum 
defensores fraternee caritatis foedus non ruperunt cum lis, 
a quibus maxiraam sacramentis injuriam fieri videbant; 
isti autem et cum iis quos ne baptismo quidem initiates 
putabant^ et cum iis qui baptismum morientibus infantibus 
denegare, et Eucharistiam non baptizatis porrigere vide- 
bantur, communicare non dubitarunt." Vita Sancti Cyprianij 
Opera Ben. Ed. p, cviii. 



396 LIFE AND TIMES OF ST. CYPRIAN. 

imposed, or invalidly conferred office is as nothing, 
the ministers of such sectaries, except in the 
instances comparatively few in which they have 
been in their own persons seceders from the 
Church, and betrayers of her orders, are simply 
laymen ; or rather less than laymen, notwith' 
standing their assumed titles. The controversy 
now therefore is very different from what it was 
in Cyprian's days, when every schism and heresy 
maintained a succession of ministers, validly, 
though not canonically, ordained. Though the 
sectaries of that age lived in heresy and in 
schism, as unthinkingly as any do now, yet 
were they in respect of a valid ministry in a 
very different position ; and they at least as- 
sumed, whether justly or no, a higher position. 

Upon the subject of Lay-baptism, to which 
this branch of the controversy in part resolves 
itself, T would refer to Bingham's very learned 
scholastical treatise on that question. Bingham 
has exhausted the subject, so far as the collection 
of authorities is concerned. 



CHAP. XVII. 



VALERIAN INSTIGATED BY MACRIANUS TO PERSECUTE THE 

CHURCH. DEATH OF STEPHEN : AND ELECTION OF SIX- 

TUS. ST. CYPRIAN SUMMONED BEFORE THE PROCONSUL: — 

HIS CONFESSION : HIS BANISHMENT : — HIS VISION. 

DIONYSIUS OF ALEXANDRIA ALSO BANISHED. — CYPRIAN 
RECALLED TO CARTHAGE BY GALERIUS MAXIMUS. HE RE- 
TIRES FOR A SHORT TIME WHEN SUMMONED TO UTICA. 

HE RETURNS TO CARTHAGE, AIJD IS BROUGHT BEFORE 

THE PROCONSUL. HIS EXAMINATION, SENTENCE, AND 

DEATH. 



The external peace of the Church, which left 
opportunity for these internal discords, was dis- 
turbed, before they were well hushed. Valerian 
had been hitherto most friendly to the Christians, 
many of whom had been admitted even within the 
precincts of the Palace : but now, at the instiga- 
tion of his minister Macrianus, a man equally 
superstitious in his paganism and barbarous in 
its support. Valerian became a persecutor, and 
issued decrees to the several parts of his empire, 
for the suppression of Christianity. 



398 LIFE AND TIMES 

The first edict of Valerian savoured almost as 
much of his own lenience, as of the ferocity of 
Macrianus, by which it was extorted : for the 
assembling of the Christians in their churches 
and cemetaries, and not the mere profession of 
the Christian faith, was necessary to bring them 
within the meaning of the imperial Edict ; and 
the laity were suffered to depart unpunished even 
from their assemblies, and no greater pain than 
banishment was inflicted on the Bishops and 
Priests who presided in the religious assemblies 
of the Christians. All that we certainly know of 
the results of the first Edict of Valerian, accords 
with this representation of its comparative mild- 
ness. We should therefore for the present admit 
very cautiously supposed proofs of the martyr- 
dom of any Christian however eminent ; and we 
need not hesitate to express a conviction, that 
Stephen, Bishop of Rome, who died on the 
second of August, anno 557, long before any 
appearance of additional severity in the decrees 
of Valerian, and of the manner of whose death 
we have no authentic accounts, died a natural 
death, and not by decollation, as has been pre- 
tended. 

On the twenty-fourth of the same month, 
Sixtus was elected to fill the Chair of Stephen "": 

'' Were it not that St. Augustine, who was most favourably 
situated for acquiring a knowledge of the subject, and whose 
argument greatly requires it is wholly silent on the subject 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 899 

and in the following month (September, 557) the 
imperial Edict reached Carthage, where Paternus 
was Proconsul ; and Cyprian, as the most promi- 
nent in character and office among the Christians, 
was the first to be summoned before the heathen 
tribunal ". Of what passed on that occasion, 
we have a circumstantial record in the acts of 
St. Cyprian, Bishop and Martyr. 

'' The most sacred Emperors, Valerianus and 
Gallienus, have honoured me with their com- 
mands," said Paternus, '' to exact of those, who 
worship not the Gods of Rome, a due recog- 



of a reconciliation between the Roman and Carthaginian 
Churches ; and were it not that all ecclesiastical historians 
are equally silent on the same subject, I should be inclined 
to suppose, that, under the Pontificate of Sixtus, full peace, 
though not perfect agreement of opinion, was restored be- 
tween the Churches of Rome and Africa : for now we find 
the communication with Cyprian, which had been forcibly 
interrupted by Stephen, restored, apparently, to its previous 
friendly terms; and Pontius, the panegyrist of Cyprian, 
gives to Sixtus the very significant character of a " good 
and pacific Prelate." To Pontius, who viewed every thing 
and every person only as an accessory to the one object of 
his veneration, this marked praise could scarce seem due to 
any, who had not fully acknowledged the communion, and 
justly appreciated the conduct, of St. Cyprian. Nothing, 
however, can more strongly indicate the absolute want of 
all evidence of this desired reconciliation, than the way in 
which St. Augustine speaks of it as in itself likely, though 
he ventures not even to insinuate a proof that it was 
effected. 

" Ep. Ixviii. p. 161. 



400 LIFE AND TIMES 

nition of the Roman rites. I would examine 
you therefore concerning your name and profes- 
sion '^ : what is your answer." '' I am a Chris- 
tian,'' said Cyprian, '' and a Bishop. I know no 
other Gods hut that One only and true God, zvho 
made heaven and earth, the sea and all that therein 
is. Him do we Christians serve : Him nisht and 
day do we supplicate for ourselves, for all men, and 
for the preservation of the Emperors themselves.'' 
Paternus asked ; " Do you persist in this deter^ 
mination ?" Cyprian replied : " A good deter- 
mination, taken up in the knowledge of God, is 
unchangealle." '' Are you ready, then/' said the 
Proconsul, " according to the Edict of Valerian 
and Gallienus, to be exiled to the City of Curubis T 
" / am ready," said Cyprian. 

Then the Proconsul, having thus received the 
profession of Cyprian, and appointed the place of 
his banishment, endeavoured to extort from him 
the names of others who were obnoxious to the 
same sentence. *^ My commission extends," said 
he, not only to the Bishops, but also to the Pres-^ 
byters of your party : I ask you then, who are 
the Presbyters in the city?" The Bishop replied, 
'^ Your laws have well provided against the abuse of 

c Exqtds'un ergo de nomine luo." The answer of Cyprian 
shows that something more than his name was inchaded in 
the question de nomine. Perhaps if we had ventured to 
descend to a phrase^ it might be rendered, ''your denomina^ 
iion" 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 401 

informers; in obedience to them I refuse to betray 
my brethren: they may be found, however, in their 
own places'' '' But I will know who they are 
now, and in this place/' said Paternus. Cyprian 
said, " It is equally contrary to the discipline of 
their order, and to the spiiit of your laws, that 
they should expose themselves unforced: yet they 
may be found by you, if you do but seek them out.'' 
Paternus said, '' They shall be found out : for I 
have commanded that none shall hold assemblies 
any where, nor enter your cemeteries ; and if any 
venture to disobey this wholesome provision, they 
shall suffer death." Cyprian replied : '' Obey the 
orders which you have received ^'' 

Thus as a good Bishop, worthy of his preemi- 
nence, did Cyprian take the lead in that confes- 
sion which was required of his flock ; sounding 
the trumpet with no uncertain sound, to call the 
soldiers of the faith to the combat ; and receiv- 
ing in his own person the first assaults of the 
enemy, while he marshalled his willing followers 
in the rear®. 

There was nothing of gratuitous severity in the 
sentence of Cyprian, nor in the manner in which 

•^ The personal history of Cyprian is now entirely derived 
from the acts of his martyrdom, and from his life by Pontius* 
and this notice will preclude the necessity of more minute 
references. 

' Ep, Ixxviii. The Martyrs to Cyprian, 

Dd 



402 LIFE AND TIMES 

it was executed. Curubis^ to which place he was 
banished^ was agreeable and healthy in its situa- 
tion ; and the house which was allotted to him 
was deficient in no comfort which an exiled 
Bishop could desire. His friends too^ among 
whom was Pontius-, his deacon and his future 
panegyrist, were permitted to accompany him ; 
and his fame having preceded him to the place 
of exile, the people received him with respect, 
and continued, so long as he remained there, to 
treat him with affection. Such comforts had 
God mercifully provided for his faithful servant, 
just fresh from his confession, and hastening 
rapidly to his martyrdom : though, as Pontius 
piously remarks, it was impossible that exile, to 
whatsoever place, could be a punishment to such 
an one as Cyprian ; or that he could be alone, 
, whose God was with him at all times, and under 
all circumstances. 

And if Cyprian was happy in the place of his 
banishment, not less happy was Curubis in its 
illustrious guest. Cyprian was less injured, than 
Curubis was benefitted by the sentence of Pater- 
nus : for whithersoever the confessor was sent. He 
for whose sake he was an exile accompanied him. 

f ^' A free and maritime city of Zeugitania, in a pleasant 
situation, a fertile territory, and at the distance of about 
forty miles from Carthage." Gibbon's Decline and Fall, 
ch. xvi. 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 40:3 

For Christ, who said, Lo, I am with you always, 
even to the end of the world, received him as a 
member of his own body, whithersoever the fury 
of the enemy drove him. Oh the blindness of a 
heathen persecutor ! If thou wouldest find a 
place which shall be a place of exile to a Christian, 
find one if thou canst from whence Christ can 
first be banished^! If thou wouldest not that the 
Christian faith should be propagated, drive not 
the confessors from their homes, for they are 
heralds of Christ's kingdom whithersoever they 
go^! 

The exiled confessor arrived at Curubis on the 
fourteenth of September ; and on the first night 
of his residence there he saw one of those visions 
of which he often speaks. I shall follow Pontius 
in putting the relation into the mouth of Cyprian 
himself. 

'' I was not yet perfectly asleep, when there 
appeared to me a youth of gigantic stature, who 
seemed to lead me away to the prsetorium, and 
to place me at last before the judgment-seat of 
the Proconsul. He, so soon as he beheld me, 
began to write my sentence, which I did not see, 
upon his tables ; but he did not put to me any 
of the usual interrogatories. An attendant, how- 
ever, who stood behind, looking on him as he 

s Vid. AuGUSTiNi Sermo, cccix. In Natali Cypriani Mar- 
tt/ris, vol. viii. p. 1247. 
•' See Acts viii. 4. 

Dd2 



404 LIFE AND TIMES 

wrote, read the whole sentence ; and since he 
was not able to speak in that presence, he made 
me acquainted by signs of what was written. For 
with outstretched arm and open hand, he imi- 
tated the stroke of the executioner, so that I 
understood, as well as if I had seen the words, 
that the sentence was recorded for my death. 
I began therefore to pray earnestly for a short 
respite, though it were but for a day, that I 
might arrange my affairs ; and after I had often 
repeated this petition, the judge again began to 
write on his tables. I knew not what he wrote, 
yet I judged from the mildness of his aspect that 
he had been moved by my just request: and 
the young man, who had before made me ac- 
quainted with the sentence, now informed me, 
by the same method of signs, that my petition 
for a day's respite was granted. Although I had 
not actually read the sentence, I received this 
intimation of delay with a joyful heart ; yet still 
I trembled so much with the fear that I had 
mistaken the interpretation of the latter sign, 
that my heart beat more quickly for a long time." 

This vision of St. Cyprian was interpreted by 
the event, when a year after, a day being taken 
for a year in the prefigurative indication of his 
vision, he was beheaded in pursuance of the sen- 
tence of the Proconsul Galerius Maximus. 

Paternus, the Proconsul at Carthage, seems 
to have acted upon his determination of searching 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 405 

for the Presbyters, according to the imperial 
edict ; for we find intimations of their being 
brought to confession, before the renewed and 
more severe provisions for the persecution were 
promulgated. At any rate in Numidia the 
Bishops of the Church were treated with less 
clemency than Cyprian had experienced. They 
were beaten with clubs, and their faith not being 
subdued by this brutality, they were fettered, 
and sent in separate companies to the mines. 
This we learn from Cyprian's letter of congratu- 
lation to them on their sufferings and constancy ; 
in which he modestly postpones his own confes- 
sion to theirs, and acknowledging the comparative 
ease of his banishment, speaks of his communion 
with them in suffering being rather that of a 
Christian fellowship and love than of actual en- 
durance. They in their turn confess the dignity 
with which the priority of his confession in point 
of time, as well as the eminence of his character 
and station, invested his exile for the cause of 
Christ. The answers of the confessors to 
Cyprian are from three separate places, which is 
the only intimation that we have of the separa- 
tion of those who were still one in faith, in 
sufferings, and in religious fellowship. Nothing 
can be more remarkable than the total absence 
of all querulous allusions to their sufferings in 
these letters of the persecuted confessors. If the 
tale of their sufferings had been left to be ga- 



406 LIFE AND TIMES 

thered from their own Epistles, written in the 
bitterest of their afflictions, and after some had 
even fallen a victim to the rigour of the punish- 
ment, we should have had no horrors to relate, 
so greatly do the consolations and high hopes of 
their condition outweigh in their own expressions 
the pains and the terrors of their situation : and 
so entirely do their Christian humility and love 
obliterate every trace of pride and selfishness 
from the record of their feelings, that we should 
almost suppose that the sufferings of every other 
person whom they mention were greater and 
more meritorious than theirs. 

In other parts of the world the Christian 
name was followed with like persecution. We 
shall here mention the sufferings of those only 
of whom we have already had occasion to speak. 
At Alexandria, Dionysius was summoned before 
iEmilius the Prefect, with Maximus a Priest, 
Faustus, Eusebius, and Chaeremon, Deacons, and 
a Roman Christian, then at Alexandria. These 
persons were his companions in a noble con- 
fession, and also in his banishment to the con- 
fines of Lybia. The place of his exile was 
less pleasant than that to which Cyprian had 
been sent just before ; but, like Cyprian, Diony- 
sius carried with him a blessing, which consoled 
him in his banishment, and abounded also to 
the benefit of those among whom his lot was 
cast. ^' God," says he, '' has opened to us in this 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 407 

place a way for the preaching of his word. At 
first we were received with execrations, and 
pelted with stones ; but afterwards many Pagans 
renounced their idolatry, and they are now en- 
rolled among the faithful." Eventually this illus- 
trious Prelate and his companions were still 
farther separated ; but wherever the place of 
their banishment was appointed, and however it 
was changed, still the same blessings followed 
their steps ; for God was with them'. 

At Rome, Sixtus and four deacons with him'', 
who were engaged in celebrating divine worship 
in a cemetery, were seized and put to death'. 

' See EusEB. vii. xi. 
^ Ep. Ixxxii. p. 165. 

' Gibbon, in the sixteenth chapter of his " Decline and 
Fall," desiring to extenuate the dangers which beset the 
Christian name under the heathen emperors, remarks, 
" The experience of the life of Cyprian is sufficient to 
prove, that our fancy has exaggerated the perilous situation 
of a Christian Bishop ; and that the dangers to which he 
was exposed were less imminent than those which temporal 
ambition is always prepared to encounter in the pursuit of 
honours. Four Roman Emperors, with their families, their 
favourites, and their adherents, perished by the sword in 
the space of ten years, during which the Bishop of Carthage 
guided by his authority and eloquence the counsels of the 
African Church." Gibbon knew, but he thought perhaps 
that his less learned readers knew not, or would not re- 
member, that during the same space, four Roman Bishops 
also had perished for the faith, or, if we allow the reports of 
Stephen's martyrdom, y?t'e. The comparison if fairly made 
will not answer Gibbon's purpose, even though he could 



408 ^IFE AND TIMES 

This was on the sixth of August ; and was among 
the first effects of a far severer edict which Vale- 
rian had just issued. Of these events at Rome 
we are informed by a letter of Cyprian to Suc- 
cessus^ his brother in the Episcopate^ and we are 
thus called back to the few remaining personal 
acts of Cyprian. 

Cyprian had been eleven months in his exile 
at Curubis, and in the interval Galerius Maxi- 
mus had succeeded Aspasius Paternus in the 
Proconsulate. The new Proconsul recalled 
Cyprian from his banishment, though not for 
any purposes of mercy ; but rather, in all pro- 
bability, that he might be more entirely within 
his power. He was allowed, however, to reside 
in ^' his gardens ;'^ of which we have before 
spoken, as the place where he probably wrote his 
Epistle to Donatus, and as a part of the pos- 
sessions which he sold, at his conversion, for the 
benefit of the poorer brethren : this residence 
was now restored to him by the providence of 
God; and though he would again, had he fol- 
lowed his own inclination, have converted it into 



persuade us to cast out of the reckoning this very important 
consideration ; that the ambitious competitor for the purple 
meets a soldier's death as one of the probable consequences of 
his career; while violence must turn aside from its ap- 
pointed course to meet the Christian Bishop, whose pro- 
fession is peace. 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 409 

alms, he was deterred from his charitable pm'- 
pose by the fear of exciting popular jealousy L 

The interest with which every breath of news 
from Rome would be received by the Christians, 
situated as they now were, may be well imagined. 
Cyprian took effectual measures to receive au- 
thentic information, and in the letter to Suc- 
cessus, to which we before alluded, he conveys the 
following intelligence : that Valerian "" had di- 
rected his rescript to the Senate, in which it 
was decreed, that Bishops, Priests, and Deacons 
should be condemned by a summary process ; 
but that Senators, and other men of noble rank, 
should be deprived of their dignity, and should 
forfeit their goods ; and that if they still persisted 
in the Christian faith, having already forfeited 
the privilege of rank, they too should be capi- 
tally punished. That the possessions of matrons 
should be forfeited, and themselves banished : 
and that any of the officers of the royal house- 
hold who either then professed, or had professed 
before, the name of Christ, should suffer fine and 
confiscation, and be sent in chains to the imperial 
possessions. 

To this rescript Valerian had subjoined the 
form of his letters to the several governors of 
provinces, directing them in their proceedings 
against the Church. The arrival of these impe- 

Pontius. 
"' He was then in his Persian expedition. 



410 LIFE AND TIMES 

rial instructions at Carthage he daily expected ; 
and^ with the intrepid faith of one who knew 
in whom he believed, even desired. With the 
example of Sixtus before him, with his knowledge 
that the heathen officers were determined to 
carry out their instructions to the utmost, he 
lived in constant expectation of martyrdom ; and 
only intent on meeting death in a proper manner, 
his conversation turned more entirely than ever 
on divine things, and he desired that his end, if 
it might be, should find him discoursing concern- 
ing God. 

He had yet, however, more than a month's 
respite : for Galerius Maximus retiring for a 
while to Utica, there received the imperial man- 
dates. He sent presently an officer to bring 
Cyprian to Utica, but the holy Bishop deter- 
mined on suffering in that place where his blood 
would most effectually witness to the truths which 
his lips had spoken ; and where his death might 
most benefit the flock which he had faithfully 
guarded during his life. He retired therefore 
from Carthage, not to avoid his end, but in- 
tending to return so soon as the Proconsul 
should proceed thither in person. From this 
his retirement he wrote his last letter to the 
Clergy and people of his flock, explaining to 
them the motive which actuated him in the 
present instance, and exhorting them, as circum- 
stances might demand, to maintain a like pru- 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 411 

dent courage and constancy. " Do you^ my 
dearest brethren, according to the divine rules 
which you have ever heard from me, possess 
your souls in quietness and peace ; neither 
exciting any tumult among the brethren, nor 
exposing yourselves voluntarily to the Gentiles. 
But when you are apprehended and delivered 
up, then speak : and the Lord Himself shall 
speak in you ; who would rather that we should 
confess His name with constancy, than profess it 
rashly. We will consult together, the Lord 
directing us, as to the course which I myself 
ought to pursue, when I shall be called to my 
confession before the Proconsul. And now, my 
dearest brethren, may the Lord graciously keep 
you and preserve you in His Church, of His 
abundant mercy °." 

It fares ill with the reputation of the wisest 
and best men, when those who cannot appreciate 
their wisdom, and have no sympathy with their 
goodness, are their self-constituted judges. Cy- 
prian has on this occasion, and on account of 
his former retirement, been accused of cowardice; 
though, had he acted otherwise than he did, he 
might have been justly accused of rashness and 
folly. If the Christians, excited into an irre- 
pressible enthusiasm, courted martyrdom too 
earnestly, they were wrong ; and though they 
may well be forgiven, the very laws of the 
" Ep. Ixxxiii. p. 166. 



412 LIFE AND TIMES 

Christian Church were their accusers : if they 
yielded even to the most excruciating tortures, 
they were punished as apostates then, and now 
they are despised as cowards : but if with Cy- 
prian, consulting the peace of the community, 
and the good of the Church ; — if with Cyprian, 
obeying the spirit and the very letter of the 
divine precepts ;— if with Cyprian, pursuing a 
course which they were never ashamed to vin- 
dicate and to recommend to others, and in 
which their own conscience acquitted them of 
cowardice, as decidedly as the world acquitted 
them of rashness ; — if thus, with Cyprian, they 
retired from the violence of persecution while 
they might do so with honour, to present them- 
selves again to its fiercest assaults when it was 
required of them for the good of the Church, 
surely they ought to escape every censure and 
every sneer. 

And the event shows, that Cyprian was not 
more deficient in courage than in wisdom ; for no 
sooner did the Proconsul return to Carthage, 
than Cyprian also came back to his Gardens, 
and there awaited the summons to confession 
and death. Nor was his expectation long de- 
layed ; for on the thirteenth of September, two 
officers of the court suddenly came to demand 
his appearance before Maximus, at a place called 
Sextus, about six miles from Carthage, where 
Maximus was residing for his health. These 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 413 

officers placed him between them ^ in a chariot, 

" St. Augustine (Sermo cccix. vol. viii. p. 1248^) finds a 
parallel here between Cyprian and our blessed Lord cruci- 
fied between two thieves ; " Christus namque inter duos 
latrones ligno suspensus, ad exemplum patientiae praebe- 
batur; Cyprianus autem inter duos apparitores, ad passionem 
cum portatus Christi vestigia sequebatur." Such a parallel 
will seem too bold to some persons ; but the truth is, that 
we cannot judge of such things, without entering into the 
spirit of those who write them. As a portion of a laboured 
and merely rhetorical eulogium on St. Cyprian, uttered by 
one who used sacred things as if they were so far only 
valuable as they added a splendour to his composition, such 
a passage would be even impious: but from the lips of one 
who was instinctively alive to every sacred association, and 
valued it for its own sake ; coming warm from the heart of 
one who believed with St. Paul, that the sufferings of the 
saints filled up in their bodies what was behind of the suf- 
ferings of Christ, and who knew that to live in Christ was 
to take up our cross and follow Him ;— from such an one, 
and such was St. Augustine, it is the expression of a chast- 
ened piety, and ought to excite no emotion of disgust. 

In writing these remarks, I have had in view the ob- 
jections which some have made against the implied parallel 
between our blessed Lord and Saviour in his sufferings, and 
the Royal Martyr King Charles, of whom our Church wor- 
thily boasts, in his misfortunes and martyrdom, which seems 
to be recognized in the Church service for the thirtieth of 
January. Judging the Church which has appointed that 
service by the same rules which I have suggested for 
judging St. Augustine, (and surely this is not claiming too 
much,) the reason will not condemn, and the heart will cer- 
tainly applaud. If the reader would see an example of that 
sort of parallel between the Saviour and the Saint (so called) 
which I have before denounced as impious, he may refer to 
the British Critic, No. xlix. p. 178, for an extract from a 
Sermon at the dedication of a chapel to Ignatius Loyola, in 
the Cathedral of Bologna. 



414 LIFE AND TIMES 

and thus conveyed him, under guard, to the Pro- 
consul, who remanded him for final examination 
till the next day. 

The report soon spread through Carthage, that 
Thascius was apprehended, and crowds assembled 
to witness the spectacle ; melancholy even to the 
Gentiles,for the honour in which Cyprian was held, 
but glorious to the Christians on account of the 
devoted constancy of the Martyr. During his 
short respite, Cyprian was guarded, but with 
no unnecessary rigour, in the house of an officer 
of the court, and the visits of his friends were 
freely permitted ; while the crowds of persons 
without testified their respect and affection by 
watching the whole night in the street ; thus 
keeping, as it were, the vigil of their Bishop's 
glorious nativity. Nor was the composure of 
Cyprian so disturbed, either by his own situation, 
or by the expression of sympathy by his people, 
as to prevent his taking such charge of them 
as his circumstances permitted ; for he gave 
especial orders for the protection of the women, 
who were thus exposed, by their affectionate 
solicitude for him, to the fatigue and dangers of 
a night-watch. 

At length the glorious day of his martyrdom 
dawned, and he was conveyed to the residence of 
the Proconsul, still accompanied by his affec- 
tionate children in the faith. On his way he had 
to traverse the stadium ; a happy circumstance. 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 415 

observes Pontius, and as it would seem provi- 
dential, that he who was to receive his crown, 
should pass over the place of conflict on his way 
to it. When he arrived at the Praetorium, the 
Proconsul had not yet taken his seat on the tri- 
bunal ; he was permitted therefore to retire to a 
less public place, and there, hot and tired with his 
journey, he reclined upon a seat which had been 
accidentally left covered with a linen cloth ; so 
that in the very article of his passion, he was 
not without some insignia of his sacred function p. 
One of the guard, who had formerly been a 
Christian, offered him a change of vestments, 
purposing to keep the garments of the Martyr 
as a valuable relict ; but Cyprian rejected the 
proffered luxury, observing on the folly of too 
solicitous a use of remedies for those evils, which 
can last but for a day. 

At length Galerius Maximus assumed his 
place in the judgment-hall, and Cyprian being 
brought before him, he said, '' Art thou Thascius 
Cyprian ?" Cyprian answered, '' I am'' '' Art 
thou he," said Maximus, '^ who hath borne the 
highest offices of their religion, among the Chris- 
tians ?" '' Yes,'' answered the Bishop. " The 

"' The remark is that of Pontius. " Sedile autem erat 
fortuito linteo tectum, ut et sub ictu passionis episcopatus 
honore frueretur." This may, perhaps, be but a puerile 
conceit of Pontius ; but it is valuable as a record of the use of 
clerical vestments and distinctions in that age. 



416 LIFE AND TIMES 

most sacred Emperors have commanded that you 
ofiPer sacrifice/' said the Proconsul. '' I will not 
offer sacrifice,'' replied Cyprian. " Be persuaded/' 
said the Proconsul, " for your own sake." Cy- 
prian replied, ^' Do thou as thou hast received 
orders: for me, in so just a cause, no persuasion 
can move me" 

Maximus, having consulted with his assessors, 
pronounced the following sentence with much 
emotion. " Thou hast long lived in impiety, and 
hast made thyself the centre of a band of pesti- 
lent conspirators ; thou hast acted as an enemy 
to the gods and to the sacred laws of Rome : 
neither the pious and most august princes Vale- 
rianus and Gallienus, nor the most noble Caesar 
Valerian, have been able to recall you to a dutiful 
adherence to their religion. Since then thou art 
convicted as the author and instigator of so many 
iniquities, thou shalt become an example to those 
whom thou hast seduced : the authority of the laws 
shall be vindicated by thy blood." After these 
words he pronounced the sentence from his tablet, 
'^ Let Thascius Cyprian be beheaded/' 

" Thanks he to God F said Cyprian : and the 
crowd of Christians who surrounded him ex- 
claimed, '^ Let us die with him!" 

The holy Martyr was then led away, followed 
by a great concourse of people, to an open field 
near the place where he had received his sentence; 
and having put off the rest of his garments, and 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. 417 

committed them to the Deacons, he first prostrated 
himself in prayer to God, and then stood in his 
inner vestments prepared for the fatal stroke. 
The executioner, who stood trembling at the 
office that he had to perform, was animated by 
his encouragement. He tied the bandage over 
his eyes with his own hands ; and that he 
might owe that office to friends which he could 
not himself perform, Julian a Presbyter, and a 
Subdeacon of the same name, bound his hands. 
To the executioner he appropriated a gift of 
twenty-five pieces of gold : the Christians, whose 
avarice was not mercenary, sought no other memo- 
rials than handkerchiefs dyed with the blood of 
their Bishop. The body was for a while exposed 
to the gaze of the heathen ; but having been 
removed by night by the brethren, it was buried 
. in the Mappalian Way. Two Churches afterwards 
marked the spots which had been consecrated by 
his death and by his burial '^. The anniver- 
sary of his death was long observed ; and five 
sermons of St. Augustine, preached on this fes- 
tival, still remain as memorials of the martyr 
Cyprian. 

Thus died Thascius Caecilius Cyprian, with a 
courage too common in those days to excite our 
surprise, but of such intrinsic merit as to demand 

^ One of these Churches was the scene of an affecting 
incident in the early life of St. Augustine. See his Confes- 
sions, V. viii. with the note p. 75, of the Oxford translation. 

E e 



418 LIFE AND TIMES 

our admiration. He was the first Bishop of 
Carthage who had attained to the crown of 
martyrdom ; and he was truly worthy of this 
high distinction. Few men have more forcibly 
arrested the affections of their associates ; few 
have more powerfully influenced the opinions of 
others ; none have been more honoured by pos- 
terity. The wish which broke from the tumul- 
tuous assembly at his condemnation, To die with 
him, was uttered afterwards coolly and solemnly 
by his Deacon Pontius : but his widowed Church 
rather lamented her own misfortune than his ; 
and soon learned to glory in his crown more 
than she lamented her own loss. His name was 
long a household word with the Church which 
he had governed, and even the heathen paid to 
his memory the tribute of respect. 

Neither Carthage nor Africa set bounds to his 
influence or to his fame. Prudentius says of him, 

Disserit, eloquitur, tractat, docet, instruit, prophetat. 
Nee Libiae populos tantum regit ; exit usque in ortum 
Solis, et usque obitum : Gallos fovet, imbuit Britannos, 
Preesidet Hesperise, Christum serit ultimis Hiberis. 

And to this day, whenever any party can claim 
the support of Cyprian's authority, the claim is 
made with a confidence which sufficiently deter- ^ 
mines its value. 

But perhaps the most marked indication of the 
deserved respect in which the name of Cyprian is 
held, is its place in the Roman Calendar : not 



OF ST. CYPRIAN. I] (J 

because this is itself a proof of peculiar sanctity, 
but because it is extorted in the present instance 
by the voice of the Church, antecedent to the 
corruptions of Rome, and because here whatever 
is specifically Romish, has been forced to yield to 
that which is truly Catholic. The works of 
Cyprian are a strong protest again t the arrogant 
pretensions of the Bishop and Church of Rome : 
his theology, like that of every primitive Bishop 
was opposed to the present system : circumstances 
even placed him in direct collision with Rome ; 
his whole energies were exerted for a long while 
in opposition to the dogma of a Pope and his 
Clergy ; and he died under what would now be 
called excommunication by Rome, though then 
indeed his position had no such character. And 
yet St. Cyprian, though such an one as would 
now be anathematized without compunction and 
without mercy by his Holiness of Rome, is wor- 
shipped by the Churches of his obedience as a 
saint : for his title to be enrolled among the 
saints was already determined by the general 
voice of Christendom ; and Rome, when she 
departed from his theology, and deserted all his 
favourite principles, could not afford to repudiate 
his oame. 

THE END. 



BAXTER, PRINTER. ()XFORD = 



BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 

SERMONS ON THE APOSTLES' CREED. 10s. 6d. 

THE TESTIMONY OF ST. CYPRIAN AGAINST ROME. An 

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